Divide
by theghouladdict
Summary: AU: Story centered on Chamcaster/Hope x OC 19 years of age, Kyle Hunter has been assigned to eliminate Ben tennyson, but winds up with him in a wild goose chase, pulling him through time and space. Pulled into the past, will he find the answers he was looking for, or something worth staying there altogether.
1. House of Flames

**Author's Note: Hello guys! This is my first story. I'm pretty anxious about how its gonna turn out but I guess I do have a pretty good plot in mind. By the way this fic does not focus much on Ben and his abilities with the omnitrix, but the fact will not go unmentioned. It's solely based on charmcaster and her interactions with a certain OC. Do leave comments and feel free to PM me.**

 _ **1\. House of flames**_

 _{The Present- 2011}_

He used to like the flames. They had never failed to fascinate him, dancing and flickering about as if they had a life of their own. But they were angry now, and that scared him, being the child of four years he was. The flames were roaring now, engulfing his once lively household in flames, scarring his loved ones right before his teary eyes. His throat was dried from heat and exhaustion, there was no use crying for them, not any more. He turned look at his family, listened silently to their screams. However, even in the relentless pain showered upon them by flames, his mother whispered to him, "Its alright sweetie, we will be with you, always." For some reason, the flames didn't even so much as lick at him in all their fury and rage, it was as if their wrath had the sole purpose of searing his family, and didnt even bother to notice him at the moment. He couldn't hold it in any longer, so he cried , to the bottom of his lungs he kept wailing and screaming.

Till he woke.

He was in a cold sweat as always, the night had granted him no more sleep than that was absolutely neccesary, just like it had been for the past 3 days. Yes, the nightmares were getting more and more frequent one could say. ' _There are somethings that you can never get over_ ' he mused to himself as he got up off the shades of the RV and tiptoed onto its roof, hoping not to wake up its occupants. He'd usually come out to the roof of the surprisingly rumbly rustbucket some nights, hoping the starry sky would offer him the peace he desired. It wasn't soon before he realised that such a peace never existed.

He carefully felt for the rungs before he took each step, easing his way down the ladder as quiet as he could, once his barefeet had touched the rugged terrain, he took the time to look at his watch. " 5 am, well, wouldn't be getting sleep anyway." He tried the door. To his favour, it was unlocked. Max had made it a point to leave the door open at nights even though he refused it. ' _The old geezer would wipe your ass if you let him_.' The door made a racket getting itself open, but gladly they had talked late into the night yesterday so everyone was sound asleep.

Besides with Ben snoring off like a hurricane in there, no one would notice if he ran to and fro in the RV, and even broke a few dishes. Once inside the restroom, he let the water flow for a while, the sound calmed him. It wasn't long before he took a handful and splashed it onto his face, taking a good look at his features while doing so.

His other wise smooth looking Jet black hair was shambled from sleep, his dark red eyes shining a light of their own into his reflection. His once pale skin had taken on a tan from his days with the tennysons, and the scar on his forehead had begun to dissappear.

"3 days in a row, well done Kyle... well done"

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the story so far. I'm new to this, so do feel free to help out a fellow writer**


	2. And So We Meet

**Author's Note: Dont worry about the timeline, it's from Kyle's point of view. This is not an error, believe me.**

 ** _2\. And So We Meet_**

 _{Two years earlier - 2014}_

"Hey its Ben, you up for a smoothie?" Ben asked on a usual summer night, sounding as casual as possible. "And since when do _you_ even think about calling me over to _that_ place? Cut the crap Ben, what is it?" Gwen answered, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Ok, Julie's stuck at smoothies nearby her tennis court where she usually practices late. Her dad couldn't pick her up, so she called me if I could, you know, drop her to her place." replied ben, sounding like a ten year old. "And why do I need to come for that?" She struck back. "Because I need a reason to take my car!" Ben replied, now almost pleading. "Wait, you haven't told them about Julie haven't you?" She asked, enjoying her little pastime like always. "Well its not something we just say in family talks" he replied, seemingly tense. "If you're that desperate we could just send Kevin to drop her off." Yes, she knew exactly what she was doing.

"GWEN!!"

"OK! Fine, geez Ben!"

About five minutes later, they were right in front of Mr.Smoothies in Ben's car, with Ben in the driver's seat and his cousin in the rear. Julie spotted Ben almost instantly, and gleamed, making Ben's face run right into a crimson undertone. "You're as red as a tomato Ben" Gwen said, her tone as flat as the floor itself.

"Gwen, don't remind me of the time I caught you and Kevin hav..."

"Okay you win!" Gwen replied, steaming with embarassment.

' _Should've been more careful that time_ ' she thought to herself shamefully.

"Hi" said Julie. The look in her eyes almost went to curious when she saw the two cousins glaring daggers at each other. "You guys alright?"

"No we're fine, lets get you home Julie." Ben replied.

"Thanks!" she said, before getting into the car and slipping on her seat belt.

"I'm really sorry about this Ben, but you were the only person I knew would come at this hour." Her eyes were lowered as she said this, and her cheeks showed a light tinge of red, almost pink.

"G-Glad I could be of help" said Ben, trying hard not to stutter. His words never got mixed up in the past years of his youth, and is tongue was arguably stronger than the omnitrix itself at times, be it solving trouble or making some. Yet it had an uncanny habit of shutting down when Julie was around. No use in a time of need, just like the omnitrix.

There wasn't much talk after that, the hum of music and the cool breeze through the windows was enough to keep the two teens synced in their harmony and wandering thoughts, while a third sat in the rear grumpily sipping at her smoothie. ' _Atleast she had the courtesy to buy me a smoothie before hand_ ' Gwen thought to herself.

Things went pretty smooth for sometime, Gwen sipping her drink as loud as ever, and Ben trying desperately to steal a few glaces at his potential girlfriend's face and even getting caught a few times, only to turn to a deeper shade of red.

Everything was going perfectly, until he spotted a fallen bike on the roadside, with a bleeding man next to it.

 **I'm not a fan of leaving cliffhangers so I promise to update as frequently as possible. The next chapters waiting!**


	3. One More Time

_**3\. Meet your Maker**_

 _{Two years earlier - 2014}_

"That's a pretty neat ride, or it used to be." whispered Ben, examining the crash crouched on his knees. To spot a bike accident in the middle of the night was strange enough in bellwood, but to spot a BMW, that too limited edition? This was serious, he knew it, in his ' _gut_.'

"Ben we need to get this guy to a hospital!" yelled Julie.

"On it!" he said, dragging the man to his car, finding it hard to lift him. The man was a bit taller than he was from the looks of it, and the blood had dried and caked on his face and hair.

However, his face didnt show much signs of aging, this guy was just an year or two older than him, four atmost. Meanwhile, Ben got a grip of himself and dragged the teen into the backseat onto Gwen's lap. Then he rushed to the driver's seat and strapped in. "Hold on tight!" he said, as the engine revved to life. He floored it, and it was full throttle all the way to bellwood central.

x--x--x--x--x--x

The hospital was just a few miles out when he caught his cousin staring blankly at him.

"What's wrong Gwen?" He asked.

"This was no accident." she said, almost scared.

"What?"

"He's been shot Ben, thrice." She was trembling now, terrified of the thought of someone dying in her arms.

"I can't keep pressure on all of these wounds Ben!"

"Just hold him tight Gwen, we'll be there in no time."

As soon as they reached the hospital, the man was rushed to the casualty, leaving Ben with a girl to drop off, and a car caked in blood. Gwen got cleaned up in a few minutes, and they used up a towel and a box of wet wipes before the car was done too.

"Well it's pretty late now" Ben said glancing at his watch which showed 11.

"I'll drop you guys off and I'll get back to check on this guy." he said, while the ladies nodded in consent. He dropped off Julie first, and Ben took it upon himself to apologise to Mr.Yamamoto for the late hour and explained on his behalf. One could say that the father seemed more than pleased. He then dropped off Gwen, but he knew one thing for sure, she wouldn't sleep well today, not after what she had to do.

It took him almost an hour to drop both of them off and return to the hospital. What he found there almost shocked him. The man who had almost died, who had pooled blood over his entire car and his cousin, was walking out of the hospital, pushing past the hospital staff, reluctant to get any treatment. He took some time to register the event to that thick skull of his before noticing that his wounds, gaping holes in his abdomen and limbs both from the crash and the gunshots, were almost healed, although still surrounded by the blood from them. The man nearly staggered and fell to his knees when Ben caught him by the hand.

"You were in a bike accident, and a very bad one at that, considering the bike was practically torn to shreds, and you were shot in the chest THREE TIMES! And you're just walking out of here like you just caught a fucking cold! Just what the hell are you?" Ben screamed to his face.

"Get your fucking hands OFF ME!" the stranger growled. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Okay then, lets have it your way. What the FUCK are we dealing with then!" Ben snapped in return.

"None of your business" he mumbled, before continuing his pace. ' _This guy's used to pain_ ', Ben thought to himself. He knew it from the way he walked, trying not to flinch, and from his gut, which he relied on from time to time.

Ben grabbed him by the shoulder, only to be yanked forward by the teen with a surprising amount of strength for his almost lean frame, and pinned to his car.

"There are people out to kill me, and if you dont want to die, you and your chicks better get outta my way. " the stranger whispered to his face.

"I've faced a lotta death threats worse than that, even from other planets. You're not scaring me scumbag." Ben tore through his gritted teeth, crushing them harder as the man pinned him further into his car.

Suddenly he felt his vice like grip go loose, and the stranger finally muttered, "You're Ben Tennyson aren't you?"

"Can't help it, I'm just too famous." Ben replied, his smug look on his face growing every second.

However his smile fell as he saw the stranger's almost handsome features fell to a cold blank stare, his dark red eyes bore into his own and deep down, he was scared. Absolutely terrified.

He was released from his lock, and soon after, the stranger offered him his hand, "I'm Kyle Hunter, I was sent to kill you."

Don't worry guys I've written almost 11 chapters so far and I'm planning on doing 2 chapters a day, so I wont leave this fic incomplete. See ya tommorow.


	4. The Beggining

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything**.

 ** _4\. The Beggining_**

 _{The present - 2011}_

"We there yet?" Kyle asked, staring out the windshield. He liked being in the front seat, even though he never actually phrased it. It was actually Gwen's turn this week, but she gave it up saying he should get a turn too. He was thankful, but being the uptight person he was, he didn't mumble anything other than a nearly inaudible ' _fine_ '.

"We're half an hour from home kids, you got that apartment ready Kyle?" Max countered.

Kyle was 19 at the moment, so he was old enough to get an apartment on his own. Besides, being Ex-military had its perks. Money was never a problem.

"Yeah its a minute or two from Ben's place" he replied flatly. Had he always been this plain, this emotionless? No, not until that day. The day he lost everything. He snapped up from his thoughts, and continued to gaze at the trees and other greenery whizzing past, shimmering in the yellow light of the streetlights as the time neared night. ' _Maybe, nightmare's over_ ' he thought, as more greenery flashed by him in the darkness, illuminated only by the light of the streets.

A few moments later found him at Ben's place, where Kyle was invited like a guest of honour. He did as much as he could to keep up appearances, but he was clearly having a hard time. Max introduced him as the son of his former comrade in the times of war, saying that the friend died a few months back, and the ' _Kid_ ' (him of course), could use a change. Max had used this cover as he knew well of the military so as to counter job related questions, but the real trouble came when they asked him about his remaining family. He couldn't tell them the truth, so he kept a good track of his lies. Ben, Gwen and lucky ol'gramps were the only people who knew the truth, save for Kevin and Julie. But that was another time.

Ben silently flinched when Kyle lied openly about his family to his parents, knowing the pain it must've caused him. Things didn't go on long after that, Gwen was just dropped off at her place, and Max offered to drive him to his apartment when he graciously declined. He said he'd rather find his own way. "Besides, I've gotta see the town for myself right?" Kyle said almost cheerfully, which seemed to have an effect on Max too, he could rarely be seen happy, this kid. So he let him be.


	5. Finding you

**Disclaimer: I dont own anything... beh**.

 ** _5\. Finding you_**

 _{The present - 2011}_

The night sky seemed to glimmer with the city lights, and it did feel good to be free, to be able to do whatever he wanted. It had been almost year in this timeline, but he got pretty comfy with the change of circumstances, much faster than he thought he would.

Ben wouldn't change at all in the years to come, and Gwen would go softer, meanwhile, the old man would dissappear altogether. He knew this much, from what he had been through. If the choice were upto him, he'd try to stop the last bit from happening, while knocking some sense into Ben's head in the process. However, he didn't say any of this them, he knew better than to tamper with the flow of time as it already is, he made the choice not to interfere, and he still believed it is the best course of action. Paradox would say the same, he knew it.

To be honest, he was quiet curious about the people of this time. ' _All this buzz about the future and these guys don't even know nothings gonna change much, atleast not for the next three years_.' he mused.

This sense of calm was alluring, but it was soon interuptedby what seemed like a yelling, followed by angry screams coming from the abandoned subway.

' _I need to get a closer look_ ' he thought.

It took a while to get adjusted to the darkness, but it didn't matter. He was P-NAF, a dividend of special forces, and darkness was his ally. In the flickering lights of the abandoned subway, he spotted a man struggling to yank his bag away from a young girl.

He got a bit more closer to the scene to get a hunch of what was actually going on, and just then the seemingly harmless girl had shot a beam of pure energy at the man before her, sending him flying backwards. "I asked you nicely, now you pay." she said, her voice showing clear signs that she was serious. Very serious.

It was then that he got a clear view of the said girl. Platinum blonde hair, a purple dress that held clumsily to her features, and piercing purple eyes. ' _Charmcaster_ '. He'd heard of a few of Ben's encounters with her in this timeline, as well as in the one he was previously in, the one where ben was sixteen. In this timeline, she was a novice, bad intentions of course, but never beyond controllable. But in the future, he knew well of what would become of her. A threat. To be eliminated.

In the abscence of her master, she would learn to hate the world as it is, she would seek to destroy not for power or greatess, she would do it just because she could. Plain. Simple. Psychotic.

"Hey", he called out to her before she vapourised the man with another one of her beams.

"You dare to interfere!"

"You're just stealing a bag from a regular guy, it's not like you doing an exorcism or anything." he shot back, sarcastic as hell.

"And who exactly would you be?" She turned to face him, now giving him her full attention.

"Ever heard of Shadow "

"Shit!"

And then she went berserk, shooting every spot he landed with beams and discs of pure energy. ' _She's better than Gwen, for now_ ', he mused to himself, as he continued dodging the energy strike with ease. Seeing the current seame of things to be fruitless, she threw a few rocks to the ground, that emerged into enormous rock golems, almost 700 pounds of raw power.

"They're big." he taunted. "I've taken down bigger."

And with that, he began to glow, not his whole body, but only his veins, a pulse of bright red washing over his every single vein, pulsating, with each beat of his heart. This worried Charmcaster. Not because of what she was seeing, but what she was sensing.

As a matter of fact she couldn't sense him, as an individual. All she could feel was a vast multitude of souls, trapped with in him. This scared her, but she wouldn't back down, even she died. She had to please her master. Then kill him someday.

He charged full on at his contenders, finishing them with one blow each. He puched right through one and swung around for a flying roundhouse connecting exactly with the neck of his second contender, where its head was knocked clean off its shoulders, and on reaching the ground he took the third by its leg, swung it around and smashed it to the ground, three moves in perfect synchrony. ' _What the hell ?_ ' her mind raced.

The old man who had earlier been nearly vapourised ran for his life in between all this insanity. This relieved Kyle, he would have to worry about civilian casualties anymore.

However, what he didn't notice, was the wave of beams that came straight for him. They hit him, point blank. For a moment, charmcaster thought that she'd won, but he emerged from the cloud of dust, unscathed, running right for her. She tried to hit him, but none of her attacks even remotely affected him, they just vanished like smoke around him. By the time he reached her, she was exhuasted, and could only stand looking as he delivered a finishing blow to her abdomen, sending her flying backwards. CQC was his field of expertise after all.

He had to accept that he was surprised when he saw the girl get up, leaning against a pillar, almost struggling to even stand up. "If only I had my full strength" She whispered to herself, grimmacing as pain shot through her entire body. ' _That kick could've killed me if he desired it._ ' she thought to herself. She raised her hand painstakingly slow, as if posing to attack.

"It's useless, drop the act" Kyle said flaty.

"It's been a while since I've had a proper meal, else I would've wiped the floor with your ass now."

"How long?" Kyle asked, keeping his composure.

"Whats it to you?"

When his stare grew annoying, she simply gave in.

"Four days" she said, almost struggling to breathe before she fell to her knees again.

' _She must be starving crazy_ ' he thought to himself, looking at her, clutching her abdomen and crumpling to the pillar next to her, growling in pain from the kick he delivered. His enhanced speed and strength were useful at best, but a kick combining the two was sure to kill any one, let alone a girl who's been famished. ' _She must be stronger than she looks_ ' he thought to himself, as he walked over to her and lent her his hand.

Charmcaster on the other hand was absolutely confused. A moment ago, this guy was trying to kill her, and nearly got away with it, and now he's helping her up?

"You don't look like you can stand on your own, just take it already" he said, extending his hand further. After a few seconds of consideration, she took his hand and he helped her up, and afer standing for sometime, she felt like she was fine to walk without his support.

"What are you doing this for?" she asked him, as she saw him leaving.

"Come on" he said, not looking back.

"Why?"

"My treat", he said as he pulled the dark black hoodie over his face and dunked his hands into his pockets, walking into the city lights once again.

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Do comment.** **By the way CQC is close quarters combat and PNAF... lets save that for later :)**


	6. City Lights

**_6\. City Lights_**

 _{The Present - 2011}_

"Where are you taking me?" the platinum blonde asked, hugging herself both from the pain in her abdomen and the cold weather. The weather was hard to get by these days, as cold and unforgiving as it was, and a random guy just telling you that he'll get you a snack, even more so.

"I'm not taking you anywhere, you're coming of your own free will." Kyle replied blankly.

' _He's right_ ', she thought, the pangs in her stomach urging her to follow him even further. She could have just turned him down, just said that she could find her own grub, but she was almost sure that she would just fall to her knees sooner or later if she continued like this, and then she would have to deal with Hex, and that would bad, very bad.

Although the weather was cold, the sky seemed clear. It was almost cloudless, and not a very starry night either, she noted. ' _The starry one's are better_ ' she thought to herself, digging her hands into the pockets of her shimmering silken cloth. However, her thoughts were soon interrupted as she bumped right into his back, and grimmaced with the pain in her abdomen.

"You alright?" he asked, his voice almost concerned. Now she became curious. Kyle took quick notice of this and went back to his former facade, voice dropping to the previous blank flatness, "We're here."

It was a busy place, people were rushing in and out even as he spoke. "Wendy's" she said, staring at the board.

"Come on in." he said as he walked into the place right into the counter, while the platinum blonde just stared around at all the buzz, clearly finding it rather amusing. Once he'd ordered, he found a quiet corner and called her over. It would be some time before the order came.

The two teens didn't so much as glance at each other, one could say the situation was tense. Charmcaster was an enemy of the Tennysons, which made her his enemy too. And yet here he was, offering her a meal where he should've just given her upto the police and left her to rot in a jail cell.

The opposing party was in her own thoughts as well, she knew there was something strange about this guy, everything from his strange mannerisms and uptight personality, to the vast multitude of souls that screamed with in him when he used only a fraction of this true strength. ' _This guy's dangerous_ ' she thought to herself. ' _Might as well try to figure him out._ '

"Why?" she blurted out.

"Why what?"

"Why are you helping me? Why do you do this?"

"Honestly, I've got no idea."

And just then as if on que, the order arrived, a humongous pile of chicken wings, potato wedges, and two burgers.

"Think you went a little overboard?" She asked, a bit intimidated by the mini mountain of food.

"Nope, I think this'll do just fine." he replied.

"You do know that I can't eat four days of food at once right?" she shot back sarcastically.

"Its fine, I can eat ; a lot" he answered, a smug look creeping into his features.

It wasn't long before the two teens attacked their meals, a big one at that, taking them almost half an hour to finish up.

"And how long have you been starving?" The mage asked to the hooded figure already walking towards the exit. To be honest, she didn't know people could eat that much and breathe.

"Since noon." He replied casually, smiling.

' _His smile's rare_ ', she thought to herself, ' _looks good on him_ '.

' _What the fuck am I_ _thinking!_ '

Soon they were in the streets again, and this time instead of walking behind his lead, she chose to walk beside him, although they didn't so much as glance at each other.

"This doesn't make us friends." the platinum blonde muttered, her hair flowing the eastern winds.

"What's holding you back?" He replied just as flat as her.

"I've heard you're working with the Tennysons now."

"So?"

"That makes me your enemy."

They were walking by a lake now, passing through the middle of town. Kyle eased himself on the railing, leaning his forearms onto it for support, gazing at something far away.

"There are no enemies." he said.

"What?"

"In the real world, there are no enemies. Only friends, and other people, people driven cause. Nor is there any good or evil, it all depends on the things you've been through, on circumstance. That decides what you think, and how you act. It becomes the foundation of your good and evil. "

"So you're a geek." she said calmly, but also a little surprised by the teenager's philosophy.

"Why do you do this then?" He asked, his voice blank, as if he could've been talking to the wind all along.

"Huh?"

"Why do you choose to follow Hex into his path, what do you get from this?"

"He's my uncle."

"So?"

"Look, I dont know what you're trying to get at, but one day the world will tremble on its knees before him, and I will be there by his side to rule this entire wasteful existence." she spat out, pushing off his attempts to unravel her motives with the bitter truth, or was it?

"And then what?"

"What do you mean ' _then what_ '?"

"You conquer the world, then what? Do you honestly think you would be happy trying to control all this mayhem?" he asked her, waving his hand towards the busy city.

"All anyone wants in the end is to be happy, to be alive and be happy, and that's about it. I try to stop people like Hex from taking that freedom from others, while gaining almost nothing himself in the process."

Now that made her think. But she'd need some time to think it over. She felt like she'd followed a shadow all these years, never even questioning her own ideals and desires, and when someone finally did, she couldn't find a word to fill the void.

Besides it's not every day that someone just comes along and shows you a whole new perspective.

"I'm leaving now." She said almost bluntly, almost desperate now to get out of this person's reach. Was he brainwashing her? No. He just made her think, and it felt strange. So strange she just wanted to get away from his prescence as soon as possible.

"Well you got a part time job or something?" he asked, a question that took her off guard, considering his sudden shift to 'normal mode.'

"No."

"Well get one, you look old enough for that." he said, taking a side long glance at her. She looked liked she was sixteen or so.

"Yeah I'm eighteen" 'oops' "and who the hell are you to tell me what to do?"

"Is it really neccesary to hurt people just for your day to day meals?" he asked, a question that made her go silent. Besides being a reputed criminal, she never found any sense in hurting people unless absolutely neccessary. It wasn't sentiment or anything, just a matter of efficiency, or so she kept telling herself.

"Here", he said, handing her two hundred dollar bills from his pocket. "This should keep you running till you find a job."

"Where the hell do you get that kind of money!" she asked, not picturing him for some rich kid of sorts when they met.

"I don't usually have finance problems, the government handles it." He said blankly, almost flinching as he felt he had let on too much.

"It's fine, you don't have to tell if you don't want to." she almost silently said, her eyes lowered and looking into the bills on her hand before shoving it down her pocket. She wasn't one for manners anyway.

"Just so we're clear, if we come up against each other, I won't hold back because of this. " she said.

"Fine by me." Kyle replied, a small smile spreading across his face, when he turned around, the platinum blonde mage was already walking away from him into the darkness, but not before taking one last sidelong glance at him, and offering him a small smile.

'Woah', he thought, before snapping back to reality, and closing his wide open mouth in the process. He shut his trap soon enough, clearly embarassed. 'Fucking hormones.'

And with those thoughts creeping his mind, he shuffled slowly towards his apartment, eager to see what it would be like, considering the fact that he would be staying there. For a very long time.


	7. Double Crossed

_**7\. Double Crossed**_

 _{Two years earlier - 2014}_

The car raced past bellwood central as the clock struck midnight, heading towards the darkness yet again.

"So you were sent to kill me by humans?"

"Yes."

"And why exactly?"

"None of my business, my instructions were only to get the job done."

"Then why don't you finish it? I'm just a few inches away from you, and an assassin of your caliber could surely - "

"They double crossed me."

Now this piqued the interest of Benjamin Tennyson. This guy was no joke, if he was able to survive that kind of a crash after being shot thrice, and even heal himself fully within a few hours, this teenager could've just been the one who ended his life. The stranger who now made himself known as Kyle Hunter was blankly staring out the window, an angry glint in his piercing red eyes.

"Why?"

"I didn't get the job done in time I guess." He replied gruffly to the kid who should've died by his hands. Just like many others, silent and without any trace.

"Look, find a place where you can stay for a while, and we'll set something up." Ben said, a thought hovering through his head.

"That wont be neccessary, I've got other plans."

"Like what?"

"The organisation, I'm going on a little payday." he said, his voice cold and serious.

"You can't just kill a whole organisation just because they double crossed you." Ben snapped back, only to see Kyle stare back at him, a stare that clearly meant ' _watch me_.'

"Look I know you've been doing this for a while now but taking a life is just that. There is absolutely no excuse to justify it, it's a choice you can't come back from" Ben tried to explain calmly.

"I know that much more that you do" Kyle replied, his face lost in the scenery passing by.

"So that's why you're just roaming around and taking random contracts to kill for money!" Ben retorted.

"I'm not a contract killer you idiot, I was sent by the Government."

"What?"

"Never heard of a government?" he spewed sarcastically.

"Why does the government want you dead, wait why does it want me dead?" Ben asked him, hoping for somekind of reasonable explanation.

"You messed with the space time continuoum, a lot. We were informed that further disturbances to the timeline could result in a cataclismic event, something called a quantum break. The rest is classified." The stranger told him, wondering how he would react to the news.

"I'm sorry I didn't understand any of that, but Paradox has been taking me places once in a while" Ben returned his tense look, only to see him slap his palm into his open face out of dissapointment. ' _The omnitrix just got caught on the world's dumbest person's hand._ ' He thought.

"Look you don't need to go running in there, if you were that good, they would've sent an equally good person to take you out, and he definitely thought you were dead so they'll probably take his word for it. You should just lay low for a while." Ben blabbered out.

' _He does have a brain, maybe he uses it only in emergencies_ ', Kyle thought, as an other track of thoughts resurfaced.

"I need to know why." Kyle said. PNAF would never double cross him. They weren't his bosses or just friends, they were his family.

"So do I" Ben chimed in.

"I just told you your reason, is that you don't believe me, or is it because you weren't even paying attention?" Kyle recoiled.

"Neither." Ben said, as calm as before.

"You may think your buddies at 'PNAF', whatever that is, are the top dogs in the game but I'm pretty sure Paradox would remind me before hand if I was even near disturbing the space time continuoum. He's been on that case ever since he learned to time travel, and I know in my gut that he's never wrong. Never. So whatever reason they gave you to kill me, it's fake. Either some one was messing up the orders from above to take swing at me, or they were tying up loose ends.

' _So he was just acting like an idiot?_ ' kyle thought, clearly amazed by how fast Ben had begun coming to conclusions, however,

"Loose ends?" Kyle asked, almost sounding curious.

"You Hunter."


	8. Ghost from the Past

**_8._** ** _Ghost from the Past_**

 _{The present - 2011}_

"Nice" was all he could say as he stepped into his new apartment. His buddies at PNAF had outdone themselves this time. Huge bedroom, Recliners, a kitchen with a breakfast bar, a 42' TV, home theatre and a full length window as a wall! This place was amazing!

He threw his hoodie on the couch, the mere start of the mess this beautiful place was to become, and walked over to the window, where he could see the relatively (He'd been to places like new york) quiet town of bellwood spread wide beneath him. Being seven floors up did offer a good view.

He flopped onto the recliner, thinking about the events that the night had offered. He thought about a certain platinum blonde who had piqued his interests, in a rather curious way. One second, she would be this dark mage who yearned for nothing but destruction, and the next, she would be this naive young girl, one who had been denied a normal childhood, forced to do things beyond darkness. What was her path, what were her ' _circumstances_ ', he thought, remembering Ben's words, lost in thought.

He didn't dwell on the thought for much longer,as he preffered to leave such things be, and besides he was getting drowsy. It would be a shame to spend the night on a recliner when he had a comfy bed waiting for him.

x--x--x--x--x

It was a monday. Mondays sucked. Benjamin Tennyson wasn't the kind of person who enjoyed to going to school and acing at studies like Gwendilyn, and merely watching her do it struck a nerve in him every single time.

"Gwendilyn, come over her!" squealed Ben's mom at the mere sight of her that evening. Before you ask, yes, the results were out.

"Congratulations dear! Top of the class again, keep it up sweetie." said Ben's dad, sending a piercing glare right towards Ben, which he channeled to Gwen, who had a smug look on her features.

"Thank you." she said, trying to sound as cute as possible, if she played her cards right, she could torture Ben for a whole week without moving a finger.

"Hey Ben.", said Kyle from behind Gwen, while she was having her victory spoils.

"Wanna take a walk?"

"Yes please!" said Ben before storming out the door followed by kyle, not even giving a sidelong glance to his parents.

His parents had never said no to anything Ben did when Kyle was around. His parents saw him to be a sort of big brother to Ben more than a friend who was older than him, and hence trusted him well, although the fact was unspoken thus far. Both the parties knew of it, and it was pretty much enough for both of them.

Once Kyle caught up to him, he went right for the facts.

"Bad grades?"

"No"

"Then?"

"Good grades, for Gwen." Ben replied bluntly.

"Comparison?"

"Yeah." he sighed.

"Jealous?"

"No! The marks I get are fine by me, its just that they have a way of comparing me to Gwen all of the time, which is bad, considering she's either first or second in her class. And when she's second, she cries like a thirteen year old" Ben said, clearly forgetting a fact.

"You are a thirteen year old, Ben." Kyle replied in his unwavering voice.

"Why are you always so... neutral? What you dont have emotions or anything?" Ben asked, clearly wanting to forget of his earlier mixup.

Right then, Kyle spotted a Baskin Robins, and gave a slight glance to Ben, which he returned with a toothy gleam of his own. Besides being like an older brother, Kyle was also like Ben's personal piggy bank. The kid could go on and spend how much ever he could on whatever he wanted, but Kyle wouldn't say a thing and pay all the bills nevertheless. Ben asked him several times where he got all the money from, but all Kyle ever said was "The government." But Ben didn't care anyway. Besides, Kyle was fun to be around, and he could talk about almost anything to him, the guy would never mutter a word to anyone. He also had a knack of teasing Gwen at certain times leaving her absolutely speechless, a sight that Ben enjoyed to the fullest.

Kyle enjoyed his company as well. He knew Ben before, but seeing much younger in age that how he saw him earlier made him quiet interested in the kid, while he knew Gwen would be the same even three years later, if only a bit more unnerving. One could say that Kyle himself enjoyed spoiling the kid.

"Two Praline pleasures", he said to the waiter, as he instantly went about doing his job. Besides, Kyle always wondered how he'd develop an addiction to Mr. Smoothies with drinks as good as these around.

"Man this is awesome!" Ben said, literally jumping on the balls of his feet.

People usually forgot he was a kid sometimes, most saw him only as the beholder of the omnitrix, not a thirteen year old. Kyle had a cool way of reminding him the fact some times, taking him places and buying him treats. And the best part? No talk about studies. Kyle never tried to advice him or anything, once Ben had raised the question out like a blunt knife, but he simply replied, "you've got your parents to do that."

The fact that he was still looking for a way to get back o his timeline stung a little, he'd miss him if he was gone, but Ben would have no regrets about it, he wasn't selfish enough even at this age to put his interests above someone else's.

So he shook the thought away from his mind and sipped contently at his praline, almost sucking breathless at the hot choco fudge that lay beneath.

"Ben..."

"Whats wrong?"

"Kevin."

Ben lowered the drink slowly, looking into the ally to their right

x--x--x--x--x--x

Ben had encountered Kevin before he even met Kyle. Kyle however seemed to know him closely for some unknown reason. He was always careful and picky when revealing facts about the future, saying that even mention of important facts could change their course of action, resulting in a drastic change in the said timeline.

Ben knew Kevin to be as vicious as they came, misdirectional, power hungry, and worse of all, even psychotic. However, he couldn't let those thoughts hold him back, not after what he had seen.

x--x--x--x--x

Kevin lay silently in the garbage choked alley, looking pale and thin, his right hand taking the form of some form of greenish crystal, worst of all, bleeding, from a deep gash in his stomach.

It didn't take long for Kyle to see what happened to him, the deep marks from tightened grips were obvious on his wrists and ankles, and the stomach wound would only mean one thing. He was left to bleed to death, to die slow and painfully.

"Ben, you alright?" He asked the kid as he saw Ben pale and almost shivering, but he steeled himself up pretty soon.

"I'll call grampa, you try keeping him alive." Ben said, his voice ringing with purpose.

"Call an ambulance Ben!" Kyle shouted.

"It's useless, bellwood central's miles away, grampa's practically next door!" he said while dialing in the number.

"Besides, gwen's got some medical training from those extracurriculars she did in school." he chimed in before he started talking hectically to Max.

' _And the RV's got all sorts of medical supplies too, nice thinking kid._ ' Kyle thought with a hint of pride, trying to keep pressure on Kevin's wounds.

Once they were in the RV, Max ran rabid to get the gauze and the antiseptics, while Gwen sprung to action with her training. Of course she knew only the basics, but she did it with prescision and care. Turns out Kevin's wound's weren't all that deep, the only thing that concerned Gwen was the sheer amount of blood he'd lost and the fact that Kyle and Ben were practically washed in it. She kept a close watch on kevin, and insisted on keeping his head on her lap saying something about blood flow followed by some other medical crap, to which no one in the RV paid much attention.

Max was already on full throttle to Bellwood central hospital, while Kyle was intently staring at Gwen and her intent gaze upon kevin's fading features. Now, he couldn't help himself. Knowing the future was tough indeed.

"You know you better hold on to him, if you don't want to be alone for the rest of your life that is." he said, a slight mockery in his voice.

"What?" she shot back, almost sarcastic.

"Ah, forget it" he said, finding himself at a loss for the right words.

"Wait a minute, no way..." she said slowly as the thought struck her like bolt of lightning, blushing furiously while doing so.

"What is it Kyle? You have to tell me!" Ben said almost begging for torture material.

"Later Ben." He said, handing Gwen a lopsided grin.

Meanwhile, the growing mage was flustered, trying to look anywhere other than to the head on her lap, but she found herself looking at this unconcious boy even more, was there actually another side to him?

She brushed the thoughts off as they had already reached the hospital, and Kyle took him from her lap onto the stretcher waiting outside, where he was rolled into casualty.

"I took care of the hand." said Gwen.

"huh?" said Ben.

"His hand was crystallised, I put an enchantment spell on it to make it look normal, so the doctors wouldn't freak out." she replied.

"Nice work Gwen, you alright?" said Max.

"Yeah I'm ... fine" she said, taking a sidelong glare on Kyle.

"You guys got any thing important tonight?" asked Max.

Kyle and Ben simply nodded no, and to their surprise, even gwen didn't mind.

Kyle sent another one of those lopsided grins her way only to earn him yet another flustered "Jerk".

Maybe he shouldn't have said this much. Paradox may soon have a boot up his ass.


	9. Hunted

_**9\. Hunted**_

 _{Two years earlier - 2014}_

"Hello this is customer service, can we help you with some thing sir?"

"My uncle's shovel's missing."

"Beg your pardon sir?"

"Tango- Tango- Beta- Bravo-... Alpha negative"

"You are being redirected sir" the female voice behind the counter said, changing from her casual tone to a serious one, while Kyle put the phone down, looking back at Ben.

"Your uncle's shovel, really."

"Military code dumbass."

The phone was ringing again. Kyle picked it up.

"Identify yourself."

"Shadow- Black sky member four"

"What can we do for you Shadow?"

"I want to contact kate, now."

"I'm afraid she's out on a mission, haven't recieved intel from her yet."

"What about Aron?"

"Same there too."

He wasn't expecting this, actually his plan was to sort something out with kate, but she wasn't there. The PNAF was put to work in only exceptionally dangerous situations. None of them were ever busy, jobs like the one Kyle got came only once in a month or so.

"Art?"

"That's strange, he isn't here either. AWOL..."

He felt his throat tighten, while his stomach was churning.

The attack on him wasn't a solo hit and run mission. It was an extermination.

He slammed the phone back into the reciever. They were the only people he had left, and they were gone. Probably erased from files and all official registers, they were now people who didn't even exist. And so was he. A ' _Ghost_.'

"You alright Kyle?"

"They're dead."

"What?"

"My unit, they're dead, every single one of them." he said, his face in his palms. He knew what he had signed up for when they came looking for him four years ago. A child with an obsession to violence, an obsession of death. His strength and agility were off the charts when inflicted with pain, sort of like a fuel for his power. And so they took him, tortured him, and inch by inch made him the perfect soldier,one who used stealth and raw power beyond natural limits, an invicible reaper, the Shadow.

The division was small, PNAF, or the Paranormal Action Force. The group barely consisted of five people, while there was a sixth, but few had ever seen him, as he was always out on one job or the other. Kyle was the youngest of the lot, tightlipped about his past but always approachable for all things otherwise. Catlyn (Kate) was pretty much his big sis and one of the only members to ever see Wrath, the sixth of their group. No one, even Kate, knew his real name.

They weren't related by blood, but Kate, Aron, Art and Hannah became quite close to him as the years passed by. And considering the very low number of jobs they had to attend to, they pretty much became family.

Besides all this, they all shared one more curse, a fate that bound them together. They weren't allowed entry into the outside world as they never existed by government records, and the only patch of real life they saw were on jobs or training campaigns. Regardless, they were trained in all aspects of life, education was drilled into their very fibres of existence. Art and Aron remembered nothing but their lives in the compound, the other two came up later in their lives, like him.

And now they were gone, just like this family.

"I'm leaving."

"No you're not"

"Look, who ever did this, isn't gonna stop unless I'm dead. If he finds out that you intend to help me, then you're toast. He'll take everything from you, everything you care about."

Ben didn't want to loose anything this soon in his life, losing his Grandpa was more than enough to handle now.

"Paradox." Ben said.

"The time traveler?" Kyle asked, confused.

"Yeah, he owes me a favour." Ben replied, thinking.

"So?"

"We're sending you back in time."

x--x--x--x--x--x

The clock struck one in Bellwood, and Ben was out in the dark again, zipping through the road, toward the park with a darkly clothed young man strapped to the seat beside him.

They arrived at their destination soon enough. Ben got out of the car and so did Kyle, though he didn't understand why he came to the park to see a time traveller.

And just as Ben had entered, a flurry of dust was seen, which emerged into an expanding 3 foot long vortex, and a man walked straight out of it. He was clad in white overalls, a pair of goggles resting at the nape of his neck.

' _Paradox_ ', Kyle noted.

"Well hello Mr. Tennyson, it seems you're in a bit of a scurry ther my friend." the strange mane said.

"Yeah I need to - " Ben trailed off as he was interrupted.

"Well well, look what he have here." the professor said, turning to Kyle and raising a brow.

"It seems I owe you yet another one Ben."

"Say what?" Ben countered.

"I was looking for this young lad, his ' _prescence_ ' is required in an other timeline, with the present knowledge he has that is." the professor replied starkly.

"Me?" Kyle shot back, confused as ever.

"Yes, and perhaps you can find the answers you are looking for, interested?"


	10. Heal

**Author's note: Ok I'm taking this a bit faster than usual because I just noticed that the length of the chapters isn' t that much. Also I'm not bothering to put up much of these note's either. Hope you guys have a good read.**

 _ **10\. Heal**_

 _{The present - 2011}_

And so here he was. Kyle thought about it once in a while, the true purpose of his being here. At first all he wanted to do was get the answers he wanted and get out of this timeline. However as time passed, he got closer to the Tennysons to the limit that they accepted him as one of their own.

Now, he didn't want any answers.

Besides they were untracable anyway, there were no official records even for the the employees. They didn't even know the location of their own HQ, a limitation of being raised in an isolated compound.

It had been almost a day since Kevin had been admitted, he was recovering well by the doctor's analysis. Ben, Gwen and Max stayed for most of the time while Kyle took over at night.

There wasn't much to go on but Gwen hadn't left Kevin's side unless she absolutely had to, and even when she did, she would be back as possible. It was strange how just a few words could change a person's attitude. Strange indeed.

By noon, Kevin had started to come through. The first thing he said however, was "Why?"

Almost all of us them were asleep at that time, but gwen was always a light sleeper, she was quick to respond to his question.

"Huh?"

"Why did you help?" Kevin said, his voice hoarse and cracked, rubbing his face with his left hand.

"I don't know, we just saw you bleeding out there left to die... what happened to you?" voicing her concern to a boy she had met almost six years back when ben was ten years of age. Back then, she had known him to be a reckless ravager, power hungry and devoid of any real sympathy. But now, he looked weak and fragile, like he might break in single touch, it felt, so strange.

"Volcanus."

"I thought we toasted that guy. He's with the galactican's right?" she said, remembering her cousins little superhero rendevous.

"He broke out. Don't know when." Kevin spoke, straining.

"It was business first, but the guy was greedy, he kept taking more part of the deal, so it went south. He captured me, and forced me into absorbing Taetenite. He used me like a sort of mine for months, I don't know how long" he said, his voice cracking and sputtering to a slow halt.

"It... hurt." He admitted , his voice hollow.

"You were in an alley, drowned in blood Kevin, do you remember how that happened?" Gwen asked, trying not to push him too hard.

"Yeah. When my body couldn't take it anymore, the taetanite began to fade, and I couldn't absorb it any more even if I wanted to, so Volcanus got rid of me. I remember being dragged out of the basement, the taetenite was upto my shoulder, but after that all I remember feeling like being impaled by some sort of claw. I tried to scream, but I didn't have any voice left. After that, I'm blank... How did you guys find me any way?" He asked her, his voice raspy and strained.

"Ben was just walking round town with Kyle when they saw you.. and then they called us up.. and there was so much blood.. and I -" she stopped abruptly as she felt his hand gently wrap around hers, offering her a kind look.

"Thanks."

"Kevin could you - "

"ah sorry." he said akwardly, trying to hide a reddened face. But when he looked down to her hand, he was shocked.

Her hands were bleeding.

"No, I didn't mean to - what happened?" he said, confused.

"Its alright Kevin," she said, putting her free hand on his forearm lightly, straining ever so slightly with her eyes as the enchantment spell weared off to reveal his taetenite hand which was still only returning to its normal state."I had used an enchantment spell to hide that from the doctors not to freak em out you know," she explained, gripping his forearm lightly while doing so.

Pretty soon his hand was back to normal just as he willed it to be.

"I'm sorry about that, I didn't notice" taking her lightly bleeding arm in his hand again, examining the wound.

"It's not your fault Kevin." she said, her voice low.

"Gwen?"

Kyle was awake now, awake enough to see the two teens talking with strange expressions in their faces, hand in hand.

Both suddenly went to a deep red, realising how this must look to a third party.

"Its not what you think it is!" Gwen blabbered out loud enough to wake the remaining two, quickly retracting her hands from Kevin, a motion which the other followed all the same, but he chose to shut up.

"Then what is it?" Kyle asked cocking his head to one side

This was priceless.

"Gwen what happened to your hand?" Max asked angrily.

"Did he hurt you?" Ben said angrily, raising his hands to the omnitrix with a rage that rivalled the old man himself.

"GUYS!" she shouted, almost scaring a nurse who was passing by.

"We'll talk about in the RV ok?" she said, putting up a sort of truce.

' _Well that was akward_ ' thought Kyle, as he walked out of the room, only to be met by a nurse who was coming in.

"You're with the patient yes?"

"Yeah."

"The patient can be discharged as soon as he's conscious" , said the nurse before she turned and left, not even waiting for a response from Kyle.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

x--x--x--x--x--x

In a matter of few minutes, Gwen's wounds were tended to and Kevin was discharged, and all of them were gathered in the RV. Kevin told them how he had reached his present state, while Gwen did the honour of explaining how she got the cut in her arm, both teens blushing furiously as she did so.

After hearing all this, Max, being the generous person he was, offered Kevin a place in their little family. One could say that Gwen was more or less excited about the proposition too. But she visibly flinched when he declined, saying that there were some matters he had to tend to, some loose ends left to tie up.

Max was worried about this, and asked him the question straight, that whether he planned to take revenge on volcanus, and when he replied ' _no_ ' without even a second thought, Max felt more than happy to let him be.

However as he left, he didn't forget to look one last time back at the Tennysons, taking special care to send a smile to a certain auburn haired girl who beamed back at him flustered, almost certain that they would meet again.


	11. Chance

**_11\. Chance_**

"Hey Max"

"Kyle, how the day going?"

"Nah, just ... bored to the bones now.. nothing new."

"Well you mind getting some groceries for your old man?"

Kyle almost flinched at the usage of words. Apparently, his sudden loss of words was noticed by the old timer too.

"You alright kid?"

"Well just give me the list already." he said, trying to cover up his tracks.

"They're already in your phone, I sent a text"

"You don't need them right away do you?"

"No, why?"

"I just needed to take a walk, that's all."

The weather was awfully odd today, but everything was a wonder to him, even the rain that some hated with every fibre of their being.

"Eighteen hundred sharp, Hunter."

"Roger that sir, Over and out."

' _He could've just said be here by six or something... eighteen hundred.. that old geezer..._ ' he thought to himself, as he pulled his black hoodie over his plain white tee, and walking out the door, taking care to lock it on the way out.

The weather actually was pretty damp for a normal Sunday three O' clock, but the cold subtle breezes were more than welcome to him. He absent mindedly gazed into his phone, scrolling over the contents of the message sent to him, his walk slowing down to a mere shuffle.

' _Seafood, really? Gross_ ' He was at most times pretty honest with Max, but he yet hadn't had the heart to tell the old man that his cooking absolutely sucked. Last time he ate some, he was clearly reminded of what boiled ' _shit_ ' would be like. He could've sworn that he saw Ben go green on a daily basis.

Apparently, the absent minded teenager had almost lost his bearings, as he had strolled into Bellwood park. ' _There's a grocery right after_ ' He thought to himself, as he entered the park, walking through the green patch of land, gazing softly at the children playing and the families laughing loud and breathless. That was one of the things that he missed in life... some thing he almost yearned for.. a family. _'I've got one now..._ ' he thought to himself happily, as he walked through a small sort of bridge, and caught a glimpse of his own reflection.

He saw what he always did. A blank face, devoid of any felling what so ever. He could have all sorts of thoughts on his mind, but none of them ever made it to the surface. Perhaps it was the training, or was it the torture, the isolation maybe. The answer was beyond his reach at the moment, so he thought it useless to dwell upon.

However, just as his mind was trailing these thoughts, he caught a flash of silver in his eyes, and slowly trained his eyes in that direction. ' _Well well, if it isn't the tomboy._ ' were just his thoughts as the platinum blonde came into view, her face turned away from him, gazing at the creek from the end of the park almost lost in thought.

Kyle slowly made his way towards her, almost shuffling, until he was at her side standing at a comfortable distance away from her, gazing at the cloudy horizon.

"Hey" he said in a blank voice, casting her a sidelong glace from the ripples of water.

"Hey" she replied, turning around to face him while doing so. She was wearing a light purple shirt and white jeans, and looked nothing short of beautiful. ' _Thank god I have a neutral face_ '

"Didn't picture you coming to a park or anything." he said.

"Just happened to be passing by, its kind of a shortcut, but I just thought I might grab a break for a while." she replied, almost easing into the conversation.

"Well, any stir ups lately?" he asked, almost certain she'd push that one away.

"No, I got a part timer so..."

"Taking advice eh? Good start."

"I would've done it any way. " she shot back. ' _Jerk_ '

"But thanks for the money , and everything else." Honestly, our snow haired mage found her interests rather piqued at talking to this stranger. It felt good in a sort of way.

"Coffee?"

"Sure."

It wasn't long before the mage and the ' _retired_ ' assassin were walking together in a rather damp Bellwood Park, sipping their coffees and enjoying the warmth it sent through their bodies.

"So what, this uncle of yours doesn't get you any grub or anything." he asked.

"No, he doesn't need it." the mage replied,knowing exactly where this would go. She didn't like it, not one bit.

"Say what?"

"He survives on Mana from his surroundings, you know what I mean. Vegetation that kinda stuff." said the mage, thinking that he would be absolutely clueless.

"He drains life force huh..."

"It's not like ' _that_ ' "

"Yeah, I know. Then why cant you do that? So where do you get your mana from? " the boy asked, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

"Its not something I usually tell people."

"Ok" he said rather casually, not even bothering to prod her.

Charmcaster had actually thought that the stranger would find it rather disturbing that she was holding out from him after all he'd done for her, but he didn't even seem to mind. Well that was a relief. ' _Stranger_ ', she thought.

"Oh uhm... didn't catch your name."

she blurted out, her ears almost going red from embarassement as she had spoken way too fast. ' _Yup, totally forgot about my pride_.'

"Oh... Its...Kyle, Kyle Hunter" he said, smiling lightly and stopping in his tracks, offering her his hand "What's yours?"

"Hope" she said, almost pausing to look at his hand before she took it, offering it a light shake.

"That's a nice name...well, Hope what again?"

"Nothing."

"No second name?"

"duh..." she said, walking by him, as if she didn't have a care in the world.

It took a while, but soon he realised that the rain was dropping down, presently in its lighter stages. This would soon be a downpour.

"Hope?"

"Yeah."

"I think you'll need this." he said in a blank voice, slowly taking off his hoodie and offering it to her, at which she looked with a bit of amazement. ' _He must've swallowed his pride whole or something_.'

"I could just use my magic you know." she chimed in sarcastically.

"And let half the cops in the whole area know that you're wanted, be real blondie" he snapped back, a little laugh bouncing along the way.

"You'll get wet you idiot!" she said pushing it back towards him.

"I like the rain, and I don't mind getting wet, so that means; you're taking this." and this time, he didn't hold it out for her to take, instead he simply wrapped it around her, as the rain pour down with renewed force, pattering down on both of their heads.

All Hope did the whole time was look into his eyes. As his arms wrapped around her, covering her in warmth, she could honestly hear her heart beat like a wardrum from deep within ' _What the hell is this feeling..._ ' she thought to herself, as she basked in the warmth of his heat, spreading through the jacket in ripples as he pulled the hood over her head, gently squeezing it into place and smiling lightly at her in the rain. If it weren't for the hoodie, he surely would've seen her trying to keep from blushing like a rose.

"Come on" he said in his husky voice. His hair was all over his face, and his white T-Shirt clung to his body in the merciless rain, etching his strong features as tiny ripples of water flowed through the crevices.

' _Keep your cool lady_.' she reminded herself, clearly intimidated by his physique.

"So where are you going?" he asked.

"Downtown."she said casually before realising what she'd done ' _shit_ '.

"Its all right, it aint going anywhere from my mouth. So, Ben and the others were looking for you all this time and you were right under their noses?" he mused.

"It's best to hide in plain sight, although it means lesser jobs."

"Jobs?"

"Contracts."

"Assasinations?" he asked, his voice slowly tailing at the mention of the word. He could try all he wanted, but there was no running from the past. Or in this case, the future.

"Some."

He didn't feel like talking anymore, so he just replied with a soft 'hmph' and left it at that. They walked in relative silence for the next few minutes, and by then the rain had come to a mere drizzle.

The mage knew that she had touched a nerve and wanted to apologise for it, pride or no, seeing the long look on the his face. It kinda hurt to even look at him when he was sad.

"Uhm Kyle?"

"Yeah." he replied, keeping his even tone.

"I'm... uh... I didn't mean to do that, sorry." she said, her purple eyes eagerly scanning the floor in fear of meeting with the dark red orbs of his own.

"Do what?"

"Hit a nerve, didn't I?" she admitted, not wanting to look like she was apologising.

"No, that's alright. And by the way, downtown's that way"

"Oh, ok then, wait your hoodie" she said her fingers going towards the zip.

The rain had come to a mere drizzle, but Kyle just told her to keep it.

"No it's yours, just drop the nice guy act already."

"Well, I'm not much of a nice guy for starters, and I'm pretty wet already so I dont see the point in taking that thing home with me. I'll just grab it some other time."

"So you honestly think we're gonna be meeting up in like coincidences like this time to time. "

"Who knows" He said, as he began to walk away, but her next words kept him there for a while.

"Ok then, but don't forget..." she said with a lump holding in her throat, "If we are to face each other, I won't hold back."

"Fine by me." he said as his gleam dissapeared into a simple upward twitch of his lips.

"I wish we didn't have to be enemies" she said, weakly smiling.

"Me too Hope, me too."


	12. Home

**_12\. Home_**

"Gramps"

"Come on in."

Kyle entered the subtle villa with a hand full of strange grocery, quiet anxious to see what Max's place was like. The reality wasn't far from expected. The place was plain, simple, and most of all, neat. _'The guy hasn't got a thing he doesn't need_ ,' He thought to himself as he let his eyes wander through the place. It wasn't much, but it was far more than enough for a man of his age.

"So, how's the place? Like it?" Max inquired.

"Pretty impressed actually." he replied, the truth of it obvious in his voice.

He walked into the living room to see a set of stairs leading to the upper floor, and the wall along it adorned with family photos. Most of them were photos of Max with Ben and Gwen, some of Ben's dad and Gwen's mom in their younger years. There were even a few wedding photos of their parents. However, he noticed one strange thing. ' _No Grandma_ ' he thought to himself as he inwardly cringed, he wouldn't ask the old man about it. Maybe he removed the photos on purpose. ' _Must've found it hard to look at the face of someone you loved through out your life, knowing that they're gone, every single day_.'

"You okay kid?" Max asked looking at his long face.

"Yeah I'm fine. By the way, you're gonna eat that again aren't you?" He blabbered out, hoping he could avoid the topic.

"What's wrong Kyle?" Max asked in a soothing tone.

"I saw Charmcaster." ' _Perfect_ '

"Where?" He said, in a rather dangerous tone. ' _Didn't see that coming_ '

"It's alright Max, I don't think she's that much of a threat now."

"Don't fall for her looks Kyle, she almost killed both of my grandkids, we should report her location to the police right away."

' _Her looks? What am I, a walking dick?_ '

"The police, really?" he shot back, sarcastically.

"Where is she?" the old man asked coldly, sending shivers up the boy's spine.

"I don't know what beef you have with her, but from my point of view, I wouldn't say that she's evil." He said, trying to defend the young mage.

"Then what do say she is?" Max snapped back, but his tone said otherwise. He was thinking.

"Misled." Kyle snapped, appearing helpless in front of the seemingly infuriated man.

"How?"

"I met her a few weeks ago, in that subway on 34th street."

"But wasn't that sealed off years ago."

"Yeah but I heard some sounds and went in, saw her fighting an old man, for his backpack." he said, recollecting the incident.

"A backpack, why?"

"Food, she'd been starving for four days."

Max felt a little sympathetic for the kid, but that didn't take back what she'd done to his grandchildren.

"Look Max, every thing she's done so far's only because she absolutely had to. She had no choice. Hex is her uncle and her master, she doesn't know of any other path than the one she's on" Kyle said, his voice going blank with each word.

"That's enough Kyle." Max interrupted, almost freezing the teen in his drooping posture.

"We'll figure something out, this stays between the two of us." Max said.

"That's fine with me." he said before walking over to the kitchen and lending a hand with the dinner preparations.

x--x--x--x--x--x--x

"Master" a voice ringed in the darkness below.

"Come, my little mage, have you completed the circles."

"All has been dealt with, I apologise for the delay." said the voice now with a feminine touch to it.

"And what kept you so long Charmcaster, have you forgotten your duties as a sorcerer?" the other voice boomed, anger spreading ripples in the sea of darkness.

"No, nothing of that sort." she replied blankly as she came into view of the single spot of light that the darkness hadn't swallowed. Her hair shined in the light, but a terrible darkness had shrouded her eyes as she stepped forward.

"There will be no more distractions, Uncle."

"Very well. The stone of Bezel shall soon be put to use, and its excellence shall plunge the three worlds in a darkness, the likes of which no being has ever encountered in all of existence!" he roared, clutching a stone that glowed in his hands, which soon gained the glow from the stone as the faint red spreaded through the inscriptions on his hands.

' _But what does he gain from this..._ ' the words of a red eyed male rang deep in her mind, shrouding it with confusion.

Soon she snapped out of it, but the mage a Shocked by what she was seeing. Its not everyday that some one saw; a Devil in the Dark.

x--x--x--x--x

"This is disgusting... " Gwen whispered to Ben as she tried to drown the boiled octopus with a glass of water.

Max had a habit of calling over his son and his daughter for a little getogether everysunday. The weekly helping of seafood was a rather common ritual for the Tennysons.

"Did you say something Gwen?" asked Max.

"No, just asking ben to... pass the salt?" she replied, looking akwardly at Ben while doing so.

"Here." said Ben, smiling pleasantly as he passed the salt over, brushing hands with his father on the other side while doing so.

"How do you even keep this down so easily." he asked his dad quietly, expecting a lecture on nutrition or something like that.

"Years of practice kid."

Now that incited a guffaw from the younger Tennyson to the level that he almost spread the whole dinner table with wine they'd been drinking.

"Benjamin Tennyson, where are your manners?" his mother scowled from the other end, glaring daggers at the kid.

"Sorry mom, dad just... nevermind" he said, a solid grin plastered to his face.

Even from the opposite end of the table, Kyle could guess what all the ruckus was about. He was the only non- Tennyson in this family meeting.

"Did you help him make this?" Gwen asked him, her eyes fluffed with tears.

"I just did as I was told."

"Kyle's a pretty good cook isn't he?" said Max from his chair.

"Yeah its _delicious_." she spewed with sarcasm.

"What did I ever do to you?" Kyle whispered to the right of his seat, lightly leaning towards Gwen.

"You made it worse." she shot back, holding a skewered tentacle towards his face.

"Just hold your breath and swallow it whole. Make chewing sounds too." he told her, as he regained his posture, noticing that the families had already started getting up.

"I'm not playing my luck this time." Gwen replied as she got up too, smiling to Max and leaving for the washroom.

"Nice cooking son" Ben's father said to him while on his way to the wash.

 _'Is it just me or did he look a little pale_ '

"Job well done Kyle, you should come over more often" Max said happily, picking up the dishes and leaving for the kitchen, and Kyle followed.

Soon everyone had left, and they were alone again, doing dishes.

"Maybe we should stick to poultry next time."he told max, doing the dishes as he spoke.

"Why?" Max replied.

"I never wanted to say this, but your cooking sucks Gramps"

Max always liked people who were straight forward, and it was one of the main reasons he trusted Kyle. But this was like throwing shooting his head clean off his shoulders.

"That bad?" he asked, almost shocked.

"Everyone likes the family meetings, that's why they never tell you this."

"No even the kids like my cooking." Max argued.

"Remember that time when Gwen called in sick for almost a week straight?" he asked, remembering Gwen and her cousin rambling about the danger's of eating sea food.

"Yeah so?"

"It didn't happen to start with a Sunday, did it?" he chimed in, hoping to drop a hint.

"Oh..." he said, slowly starting to deal with the truth.

"How about a turkey next week?" asked Kyle, a little more elated than usual.

"We'll see how this works out, if it doesn't we go back to seafood"

"Done" he said, sealing the deal with a solid handshake.

x--x--x--x--x--x

It was almost 11 when he left, walking into the city lights again. It reminded him of a certain night when he met a certain stranger, but he pushed those thoughts away ' _She's right, we're still enemies, if there is such a thing..._ '

He looked up to the sky again, this time it looked more darker to him, the stars a bit more mysterious, hiding their tears from the past. ' _The light you see today is of a star that could've died millions of years ago. Where else can you just look into the past. There's simply no other place than the sky that's beyond time._ ' he thought to himself, remembering the wise words spoken by a time traveler himself.

He came to this time looking for answers, but he never once questioned the intentions of the person who sent him. ' _What could be his motives, he seemed more ready than I was to send me back in time. Wouldn't that affect the continuoum?_ ' His mind riddled with these thoughts. Maybe he should stop thinking altogether. Like Ben. Much less trouble.

As he walked into his apartment, he locked the doors and went straight to the full length wall of glass, and looked at the sky once again. It looked dark and foreboding.

' _There's a storm coming..._ '


	13. The Darkness Within

**_13\. The Darkness Within_**

The sudden sound pop of music from nowhere shattered his sleep. After regaining some amount of conscience, he realised that it was emanating from his phone. ' _Fucking alarm.'_

He tried giving it a few blind sweeps, but it was no use. The damn thing just wouldn't switch off. A few tries later, he realised it was not an alarm tone at all. ' _Alan walker, Faded. Ringtone!_ ' He nearly threw the covers to the floor as he yanked himself upto the table by his bed, quickly grabbing his phone. ' _11 already_?'

It was then that he noticed that there were six missed calls, two from Gwen's cell and the rest from Max's. The next call was already there.

He picked it up, almost stumbling over the table, running around the room in his shorts. ' _Where the hell are my clothes!_ '

"It's almost noon Kyle, what's the hold up! You better get over here, fast!" Gwen screamed from the other end of the line.

"What is it?" He said in a husky voice.

"Its Hex, you know, the weird magic guy I told you about. He's going haywire over here. Same with crazy chick." She chimed in between all the chaos.

With that, he stopped dead in his tracks. His tone wasn't rushed or desperate as it was before.

"I'm on my way." It was cold.

x--x--x--x--x--x--x

Ben and Gwen were in the RV when Kyle arrived. Max was already outside, trying to lead the civilians to safety.

Ben's hands were on his watch, switching from four - arms to heat - blast.

"Ben, remember what Asmoth said, you can't use the watch any more."

"He said I can use only if I absolutely have to!"

"There's a limit to that thing now! It wasn't meant to be a weapon it was a research tool you idiot. Didn't the alien tell you that."

"Kyle we don't have time for this."

"I'll handle it!" he snapped, forcing Ben to look at him. Ben knew that look all too well.

"Kyle you don't have to do this." he said, knowing exactly what he was planning on doing.

"Get the civilians away from here." he said, staring into the chaos that enveloped the city.

"I'll come with you" said Gwen from behind him. "I know what they're doing."

"What are they doing then?" he inquired, looking at the top of the tallest building in the area.

"They're using the stone of Bezel to reserruct the five stones that I destroyed."

"And how do you know that?"

"Internet. While we were cooling off, they were busy stealing ancient artifacts. Two days ago the stone of Bezel and the mask of the Sand Wraith were stolen from two reputed local on seperate dates museums."

' _So that's why she was in Bellwood_ '

"And what does the mask do?"

"Lets just say it makes things a whole lot worse."

x--x--x--x--x--x--x

Kyle decided not to use the stairs as they may already have them booby trapped. Gwen created a makeshift platform with her magic and raised them all the way to the rooftop. Just as he had guessed, Hex was on the highest point available, and guarding it's foot were several rock golems with violet incantations on them. That could only mean -

"Do not interfere with the proceedings Kyle, and I won't hurt you." Said the snow haired mage, emerging from behind her golems "However, you're not leaving this place alive." she said, glaring sharply at Gwen.

"Is there any way to slow him down?" Kyle asked Gwen in a rather low voice.

"There are circles around the foot of that antenna, I'll clear 'em if you can take care of Charmcaster"

"Done." he said as he started walking dead straight towards the mage.

"I warned you." the Charmcaster scowled as she sent one of her beams of pure mana towards him. As it made impact, a cloud of dust rose.

She prepared her next set of spells as she knew what would happen if she lost her guard. The assassin emerged unscathed just like the last time. She hit him with everything she could think of, from discs and beams of magic to even encasement spells. Everyone of her spells just seemed to vanish around him.

"That's enough! Get him you mongrels!" she ordered her golems, and they ran into him like a rampage.

However, he stopped dead in his tracks, merely gazing upon his opponents as they were running for him. He pulled out a rather long knife, and held it in his palm, steeling himself.

' _Does he think he stands a chance with that weapon?_ ' she thought to herself, remembering how he had shattered her golems with his mere hands in their last encounter. However what he did next shocked her.

He impaled himself with the knife right in the gut, his blood spilling all over the ground he stood on, and bit down the pain as he crumpled to his knees. She could've sworn that she saw the knife come right out through his spine. Her heart skipped a beat.

He was on all fours now. The blood soaked weapon had slipped from his hand and was on the floor now, while blood pooled aroung him as well, dripping from his mouth as well as the hole in his gut. The mage held her hand to her mouth as she saw the scene unravel. Her stone golems had stopped midrun out of confusion. Just then, he started to stand up. The flesh could be seen regenerating in his wounds, the trail of blood that lined his mouth drying up. A writhing darkness surrounded him, a flame of darkness that seemed to suck the light out of everything nearby.

Magic circles appeared in the air that surrounded him by his shoulders, and from them, he pulled out two enormous blades, almost half his own length. They were long and wide heavy blades, one could even call them ancient war axes. But this wasn't what shocked her. With the flick of a latch, the blades fell from his hand, hooked by a chain that attached them to their wide handles that he held firm in his grip. No, they couldn't be. ' _The Blades of Exodus._ '

The blades recoiled right back into their handles, just as the wielder flipped it to hold it in a rather strange backhanded fashion. His pose was straight now, he was standing strong, and with the twin blades of fury held in a manner that it crossed at the back of his spine. He wasn't the calm and collected Kyle she had seen before. This is his true self. This is the Shadow.

The enraged berserker whipped his blades around a few times to test them, the blades recoiling back each time back to their handles only after nearly obliterating the floor they struck. With a gutteral scream, he swung it down towards one golem, instantly crushing it to kingdom come. Not stopping with the impact, he jumped up high using his first blow like a pole of sorts, spinning in the air twice to send his chained blades on a rampage. Chamcaster dodged the blades by near fractions while three more of her stone golems were crushed in the barrage of havoc, the other two severely damaged. Once the dark being had landed, he took care of the remaining two golems with a simple sweep to the left, returning them to what they were, a mere pile of dust.

Hope was too shocked to do anything as the grim reaper walked towards her. She kept an intimidated expression on her face, but deep inside, she was scared shitless. When the being came close enough to her, she charged with all she had left, taking all the mana out in one single blow. However, Kyle simply sidestepped and punched her right in the gut, a punch that made her spit blood and eventually lose consciousness. ' _I'm sorry Hope_ ,' he pleaded to himself as he looked at his target, the man in magical robes. He looked at Gwen, who was a bit shaken by what she just saw. However she snapped out of it soon enough and gave him the green light, all the circles had been dealt with in the chaos and confusion.

' _Your turn next_.' he said, looking at the man in the eye of the sandstorm.

"You may have defeated my apprentice, but I won't be easy, demon" The man in the middle boomed, "This storm is impregnable, you will never stop me in ti-" His words were stopped midway as the said demon had already latched on to him by a blade firmly lodged into his chest. A darkness shrouded his eyes as he felt his power fading, his grip on the stone going slack as he felt it slipping from his hands to the heights that lay below, and vanished, into a mere mound of sand.

The darkness around Kyle dissappeared as soon as he reached solid ground, his gaze falling on a fallen mage and an auburn haired girl who stood her with a question dwelling in her mind.

"So, what do we do with her?" she asked the teen.

"Good... question." he said, before falling forward flat on his face.


	14. A New Dawn

**_14\. A New Dawn_**

 _He was in a house, in the flames that he knew all too well. He was tied to a chair again, but this time he wasn't a child. He was older, a teenager to be exact. His family was laid out in front of him, tied to chairs, gagged and bruised. The flames lashed and whipped at them, but their hollow screams were muffled by the cloth that had been forced into their rheums. His eyes were scorched from the heat, but even in his blurriest of vision, he saw a spectre walking towards his mother, who was slowly fading away. He pulled the gag right out of her mouth, and she let out a terrible wail. A scream that would terrify him for years to come. And his mother, through all the pain and anguish she endured, repeated the same words he had heard many, many times "Its alright sweetie, we will -"_ _But her voice was muffled as the spectre walked towards him, bending down to look at him face to face. "The flames don't like you it seems." he said, cold as ice amidst the fiery blaze. "Don't worry, I'll scar you for life, just be sure to remember my face, I'm a hard man to find." Masked man said as he laughed like a maniac and the child looked on. "Name's Wrath."_

He woke in a cold sweat again, but this time, he wasn't out on the shades of the RV or met with a starry sky. Instead, he was inside the RV, in Ben's bunk. He grimmaced as pain shot up his gut and he lied flat on his back, pushing his arms and legs as down as they could go to douse the pain, arching his spine upwards as he did so.

"Kyle you're awake." said Gwen from the table, as she got up and walked over to the bed.

"Hurts huh?" Ben tuned in.

"I've been through worse." he replied as he got up again, not showing any indication of pain this time around. He got off the bed and was about to walk over to Max when he saw the person who was on Gwen's bunk.

"What's she doing here?" he said as he stared dumbfounded at the mage who was laid on the bunk.

"Grandpa took her in, says that he'll figure something out once we reach Rockport." Ben said, as he too looked at the sleeping mage.

"We didn't cuff her by the way, but I'm considering taping her mouth once she's awake." Gwen followed, lost in thought.

"Wait why are we going to Rockport again?" Kyle asked, his mind piling up one question after the other. ' _Rockport? Max let her in? Taping her mouth? What the -_ '

"We're going on a road trip Kyle." Gwen replied calmly.

"Why?"

"Vacation duh." Ben said, returning to the front seat.

"And Max thought it'd be great if you came along this time." Gwen said, smiling as she did.

"But no one mentioned letting a psycho sleep on my bunk" she followed blandly, inciting a small grin from Kyle.

"So what do we do with her again?" she asked for the second time.

"Lets ask Max." he said, as he walked towards the driver's seat.

"Hey Kyle, how's the wound."

"Max, what's with taking her in all of a sudden."

"And what should I have done Kyle, just leave her there?"

He didn't have an answer for that.

"I thought about what you said Kyle. If you're right about what you told me, then I'm pretty sure she won't accept our help at the first go. I want you to talk to her once she's up."

"Why me?"

"You've met her a few times right?" Max answered, setting the RV into cruise.

"You know her!" both Ben and Gwen screamed in chorus, while max almost jerked the wheel. ' _Thank God there weren't any other vehicles_ ' he silently prayed.

"Yeah." Kyle answered, trying to avoid their faces as he did so.

"O...K" Both of them said seperately before walking back to the table.

"Ok, I'll do the talking Max. But why?"

Max understood what the teen meant. So he gave his answer, placing the words that best suited his intention.

"She just lost the only path she knew Kyle. An apprentice without a master is much worse than an apprentice with one, even if it was one like Hex. If she doesn't have a path to follow, she would've created one herself. Given her past, I don't think its a path that we'd like to go down. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

x--x--x--x--x--x--x

She could feel that she was moving. There was a certain softness to what she was laid on, as if she was laid on a pile of feathers. The steady rumble of the bed and the shimmering rays of light that soothingly warmed her skin forced her eyes open.

She squinted at her surroundings, and they blurred around her the more she tried to figure them out. She could spot a black hooded figure, occupied, swiping at a small shiny object, from which two strings were latched on to its head. The figure was seated next to her bed, as if he had been watching over her in a sort of way. She tried to get up but grimmaced with pain as her abdomen recoiled, forcing her back to bed. When she tried to speak, she noticed that her mouth tasted of iron. ' _The blood_ ' she remembered, as her encounter with the Shadow came back to her mind. The blood that had pooled around him when he stabbed himself, his stiffled cries of pain, the forbidden blades, and the final blow. It all came back to her, bit by bit. ' _So that must be..._ '

"K-kyle...?"

"Just rest now, we'll talk once you're fully healed." he answered, his voice echoing through her head.

"She knows your name?" an auburn haired girl asked from a table nearby. ' _Gwen_ ' she remembered, a rage building up inside of her. _'Why was she here? Wait, where am I?'_ she thought looking around at the strange setting.

"Its alright, you're safe here. We're in the RV."

The surroundings were clearer now, and her eyes focussed slowly into the details. As she raised a hand to rub her eyes, an expected pain shot up her gut, but she held it down. She slid a stray strand of hair from her eyes as the black hooded teen came into full view. Kyle Hunter.

"Got a thing for black sweaters huh?" she asked in a raspy voice, coughing soon after. Soon she was trying to sit up.

"Don't push it blondie." he warned as he tried to help her sit.

"What am I doing here?" she asked, her voice restored.

"What you got any other place left to go to?" He snapped at her, making her flinch at his sudden change of tone.

' _Wonderfully done Kyle, scared the living shit out of her. Dumbass_ ' He thought to himself, a bit dissapointed at what he'd done.

"No" she said firmly, as if she didn't care even if she was kicked out that very instant.

"Well, in that case, Max decided that he's taking you in."

"Wha-"

"You can leave whenever you want, but as long as you're here, you live by our rules." he said firmly.

"Which is pretty much nothing." said Ben said from the table which earned him an elbow to his ribs followed by a "Doofus" from the auburn mage.

"Are you sure that's what everybody wants." she said to him as she stared blank at Gwen who was currently abusing her cousin with her martial arts training (which also she took up for grades). She didn't expect her arch enemy to be such a ... ' _child_ '.

"Gwen? Yeah she's cool with it. The question is, do you want to stay or not." He phrased the same question again, abit more relaxed this time around.

"I need some time." the mage answered, as her hands went to her hip.

"Where's my bag - "

"Its in the cabinet." Kyle answered her even before she could complete her question.

"Next stop, Rockport central" Max boomed from the driver's seat, as the outlines of a city in the pasture land came into view.

x--x--x--x--x--x--x

The speed of the RV had dropped considerably as they entered the outskirts of the city. It took almost an hour more to reach central, and soon they found a parking lot to camp in for the night.

"First off, drop the chinese dress. Painting a red X on your back would be less obvious." said Gwen as she faced the other mage who was now looking at her clothes rather curiously.

Kyle too looked at her as the conversation went on, but averted his eyes as she saw him staring. He might as well have turned a little red on that account.

"Grandpa I'm going with shopping with Charmcaster."

"Oh, so you're saying that she's a wanted criminal and so she should change her clothes to make sure the police don't catch her" Ben chimed in.

"Isn't it obvious doofus."

"And you want to take her to a mall where there'll be tons of people and security?" Ben countered, leaving Gwen speechless for a moment. ' _Ben - 1 , Gwen - 0!_ '.

"Well, that's been dealt with already," she said, as with a few words and a swift move of her hands, mana filled the air around the mage, and changed her entire form, to Kevin? ' _One each!_ '

"So you wouldn't mind going shopping with Kevin?" Ben shot back with a certain pleasure in his voice. ' _Ben - 2, Gwen - 1 !_ ' "Shopping for girls clothes, which would certainly look like you're his _girlfriend_..." ' _Gwen has blushed and Ben wins this round!_ ' a sort of commentary going on in Kyle's mind coming to a rather satisfying end.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like!" she squealed as she pulled Charmcaster by her arm right out of the RV.

"Well they seem to be getting along." Max said as he walked towards the door, seeing the two girls barge out of the vehicle.

"I guess Charmcaster isn't that bad after all" Ben said as he gripped the handle on his way out.

"It's Hope." Kyle murmered.

"Huh?"

"Her name, its Hope." he replied as he went right by Ben, opening the door and walking into darkness again.

' _Hope_..' Ben thought, looking at the night sky.

' _Interesting_.'


	15. Happiness

**_15\. Happiness_**

The clock struck eleven, while the three men waited at the table, curiousity and fear creeping in the air like a visible stench.

"What's taking them so long?" asked the boy clad in a black and white tee.

"Gwen's just takin her time Ben, they'll be back soon" said another who was swiping at his phone, musing himself with the latest pictures on pinterest. His mind however was on an entirely different track. ' _She better not have any funny idea_ s' he thought, the idea of the silver haired mage double crossing them dwindling on his mind.

Almost as if his thoughts had been heard, the said two women entered with two bags full of clothing and some other ' _essential accessories'_ , as they described them. Gwen had come in just as she went, but she must've urged Hope to change in the store itself, as now she wore a black printed T shirt and a track pant, both of which hugged comfortably onto her blossoming features ' _Not good'_ were the thoughts of a certain teenager who was now practically boiling inside his dark hoodie.

"You better not have drained my card Gwen" Max said in a light tone as he walked towards the girls and took one of those covers, examining what they had bought. Most of them were T - shirts and jeans, and he spotted two shirts too, which was kind of okay. However two certain ' _articles'_ had caught his attention, one of which he lifted, making the ladies run red as roses. It wasn't much of a deal really, just a pair of shorts that girls wear these days. Very, very short shorts. Hope almost glared at the auburn haired teenager, who almost giggled back in response. Being a convicted criminal, the platinum blonde had never done much shopping, so she had been rather inexperienced in the art. She had only tried a few items on as Gwen had figured out her sizes by then, and after that, it was all on Gwen. Hope didn't even care to look which one's she had bought. And now she was paying the price.

Max didn't even bother to pick up the second item as Kyle looked like he would passout before any more of this. The charmcaster merely walked over to look at what her arch enemy had purchased, and the shock on her face clearly indicated that this one was beyond short shorts. "What? I guessed your size." the auburn haired teen said to the snow haired mage, her grin almost ripping her face in half.

Hearing this, Kyle slowly walked out of the RV and Ben followed suit, as they didn't have the balls to know of the akwardness that would follow. Max simply slapped his palm on his sleepy face, almost dumbfounded at how stupid his grandkids could be at times. Even Hope couldn't handle herself as she too left the RV soon after, leaving Gwen and Max inside.

However she was met outside by the two boys, who had apparently recovered from what had transpired and were already making a fire. She went in closer to see them work, kneeled down with them to see what they were doing. A small flame had been sparking its way to life, trying to grasp on to the wooden shavings that Ben had saved for the occassion. It would've soon burst into a lively flame, but the eastern winds had whipped the life out of it, the juvenile flame dying out right before their eyes. Hope almost felt sorry for Ben, as he had already started throwing a tantrum. All Kyle did was pull up the sleeves of his jacket and prop himself up to a simple crouch on his toes. He turned around to look for any unwanted stalkers, all the while ignoring Charmcaster's prescence right beside him. Then, he slowly picked up the stick which they had churned around the wooden block for nearly a quarter of an hour to arouse a flame; and impaled his own right arm with it.

' _WHAT THE FU-'_

He pulled out the twig as if the action hadn't remotely affected him, and slowly a purple flame crept up his palm. He simply held his palm to the firewood as it instantly caught fire.

' _This isn't any ordinary fire_ ' she thought, as the teen drew his hands back from the flame, and threw in the stick he had just used to induce those very flames.

"What the hell was that all about?" she asked, her voice raised. As much as she was frightened of his actions, she was angry too. For what reason, she didn't know.

"You think this kind of power comes without a sacrifice." He replied, almost amused as to why she would even care to sympathise for him of all people. He hated sympathy.

"So what you just have to spill blood all around the place to bake up a little heat?"

"It's not the blood, charmcaster, its the pain." the boy said as he pulled his hoodie to hide his face, rising rather hastily and walking towards the RV. It could've just been her mind playing tricks with her, but she felt as though the night had grown darker upon the revelation, a few stray clouds covering up the once starry sky.

The revelation had shocked her alright, but there was something that hurt her a bit more, although the reasons behind this weren't clear to her yet. ' _Charmcaster_ '. He was pushing her away, and they weren't even close to begin with. The fact somehow struck a chord somewhere deep within our snow haired mage.

A few minutes later, Kyle, Max and Gwen came out of the RV, holding a few open zip bags. She had been enjoying the warmth of the flames in the chilly eastern winds with Ben the whole time, an occassional question coming from Ben every minute or two, usually about her name and her life with Hex. She didn't mind answering him though, she never had any hatred towards Ben in all her years, that went only for Gwen. It wouldn't go down in her years to come either, especially after the little shopping stunt she had pulled.

She tried to steal a glance at the teen who had grabbed a seat right next to her despite the rather rough exchange of words just a minute ago, but her emotions were mixed as she mere saw him blankly gazing at the fire, his hands lightly trembling. He was sitting near her, so he might as well have forgiven her for the intrusion, but the way his hands were trembling, it almost felt as if she had caused it.

And maybe it was true.

' _Struck a nerve again, didn't I... '_ she thought, hugging herself from the cold, shivering ever so slightly to send a gentle warmth up her spine. Max had already pulled out a few sausages and skewered them on sticks, distributing them to all the five members who were part of this road trip. She took the meat without any questions and had already leaned it towards the burning pit, but she was surprised as no one else followed suit.

' _Are they gonna say grace or something?_ ' she thought, looking back at her fellow parking lot campers. The reality was far from expected.

Kyle, Ben and Gwen were looking at the sausages as if they were the most savage things they had ever seen, and slowly craned their heads to look back at Max who was almost as dazed as Hope herself.

' _Mind controlling sausages?'_

"Grandpa, is something wrong?" Ben asked, his gazing shifting from Max to the skewered meat in his hands.

"What?" the old man asked, clearly in the blues.

"It's alright Ben, didn't think he'd be this fast though."

"What's going on again?" The mage interrupted, turning all heads her way.

"Oh, it's nothing, we usually have this absolutely disgusting seafood when he's around." Gwen said, pointing a sideward thumb at Max, who was now almost pouting.

"So all these years you were lying right to my face. " He said, as though he'd been shot down from the sky.

"C'mon Grandpa, you know it's not that" Ben nearly whined.

Kyle didn't say a word during the whole exchange, however he had this smile that held to his face, his face glowing warm in the ever changing flames.

 _"They look like they're happy." Hope said, leaning close to Kyle, supporting herself on her knees._

 _"They are blondie" he replied in a rather dreamy tone._

 _"Is this what a normal life is like?" she asked, placing her chin on the palm of her hand, leaning further._

 _"These guys are far from normal, but I guess they're close enough." He replied, almost enjoying the sight of the small family having their little argument._

 _"I guess somethings are far beyond one's reach" she said, her happiness slowly fading away._

"Well you know what they say, there's always Hope" He replied, grinning.

"I see what you did there..." she said flatly, and Kyle instantly doubled up in laughter.

She slapped him lightly across his arm, which he covered up right after as he laughed to the point of breathlessness. ' _Feels nice to have some fun once in a while'_ thought Hope, as she too laughed alongside her new friend, for once forgetting the life she lived to this day.

x--x--x--x--x

An hour later, they were done with the sausages. After dousing the once lively flames, they all went into the RV. Max turned to Hope, cleary having some thoughts on her accomodation.

"Ok so Charmcaster, you can -"

"It's Hope, you can call me Hope - all of you guys." she blabbered out cutting Max midway.

"Hope. That's a good name young lady. What's your surname then?"

"I don't know actually."

"Oh, we'll have to something about that, but I guess we'll deal with that later. I'm afraid that there are only two beds on this RV, and I myself sleep on the driver's seat."

"So where does Kyle rest?" 'Just curious

"Oh he sleeps on one of the shades"

"The other's free then?"

"Yeah sure, although you may have to get up a ladder and down one on a daily basis. You sure about this?"

"You don't have to worry so much about it Mr. Tennyson" she replied.

"Oh I'm sure Max will do just fine" the old man said, feeling rather queasy with a formal gesture.

"It's fine Max"

"Anyway, I'll leave the door open in case you need anything. And if anything fishy comes up, just shout."

Right then, Kyle came out of the small restroom they had, wearing a pair of shorts and a sleeveless T- shirt, a drowsy look in his eyes.

' _On the same roof as this guy..._ 'were her thoughts as a completely different line of ideas were ripping through her brain at " _mindblowing_ " speeds. ' _He's ripped!'_ she thought, as her eyes shot quick glances at his limbs and shoulders. Thank God the rest of him was covered. Either Kyle had noticed or he just didn't care. He opted to simply walk right over to the door, slowly pulled it open and went to sleep.

"Well someone's unusually sleepy." Gwen chimed in as she had seen the scene unravel, even noting the places where the devious mage's eyes had spread to in the short amount of time. Maybe she would save that for later. Might come in handy, who knows?

Almost an hour later, Charmcaster too had left the RV in her T - shirt and tracks, despite Gwen's constant nagging telling her to wear the shorts. She knew it would only get colder at night. ' _wouldn't want to put anyone on the edge either_ ' she thought to herself, almost shrugging the dirty thoughts off her head. As she slowly climbed up the ladder, she was surprised to see that Kyle hadn't slept yet. Infact, he was sitting up,and he was sweating, a sad expression etching his features.

"Alright here?" She asked walking over to him on the roof of the RV holding her blankets before flopping down.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said blankly, looking at her rather curiously.

"And why are you here again?"

"Oh, I'm sleeping here, on the other shade I mean." She said, looking over to the other shade, that was opening itself as it's master had already flicked the switch from within the RV.

"Oh, you got your blankets right? It gets real cold this time of the year."

"Figures" She said, hugging herself from the cold, sending him a light smile which he was more than happy to return.

"Goodnight then, try not to have anymore of those nightmares"

"How did you -"

"Everyone has nightmares Kyle, even I do, a lot."

' _Well it takes one to know one_.' Kyle thought as he eyed the suspicious teen. ' _There's more to this one than she lets on'_

"G'night then" she said, snapping him from his thoughts

"Goodnight, Hope." he replied, gently closing his eyes to a satisfying slumber he hadn't got in years.


	16. Broken

**_16\. Broken_**

Two weeks had passed since she joined the Tennysons. The change was more than welcome for her as the Tennysons were strangely friendly to her. They had almost accepted her as one of their own. Except Kyle of course. The guy was pretty mysterious. He was pretty much the only person in the party who tried as much as he could to avoid her. She hadn't done anything to put him on the edge or feel uncomfortable to deserve this kind of treatment either. Which had managed to piss her off, very much.

He always kept his distance and even when they talked he would keep this very aloof tone, something that she could only describe as blank. She didn't blame him though. Even after two weeks, she was never too expressive with her fellows. She kept some parts of her to herself, being the wound up mage she always was. They never complained though. That was part of her, one could even look at that as the damage from years of lonliness and servitude to one single master, her own uncle Hex. She was never close to anyone other than him, and strived to do anything to please her master for just one word of gratitude, but unfortunately, that had happened only once in her life. She despised that one time, a secret that she had tried hard to bury in the deepest reccesses of her heart, one that had caused her suffering and pain for months, one that was meant to stay hidden.

If Kyle was pushing her away, then she wanted to know the exact reason, not because she cared or anything, but just to satisfy her curiosity. ' _Or is it?'_ They say that one of the greatest weaknesses of human nature is curiousity, but it is also one of their greatest strengths. Mankind has gone to great lengths for knowledge, never once failing to be astonished by what was found, yearning for more.

' _Who am I to judge him, if I'm not capable of opening up myself_ ' the platinum blonde thought as she stared down at the whizzing road through the window, leaning her head against the glass, sighing.

' _If they knew of the monster I am_...'

"Hey hope, you alright?" Gwen asked, almost startling the mage from her relaxed posture.

There had been other changes too besides Kyle's demeanor. Her arch enemy was now one of her greatest friends, someone with whom she could share almost anything. They could practically read each other now, even if they knew each other fully for just two weeks.

"No its nothing Gwen. Just thinking."

"Thinking what?"

"I don't know, just stuff."

"What kinda stuff?"

"It's been two weeks, and it feels kind of nice, being with all of you." she accepted, a fact that everyone knew but hadn't been voiced till date. "But something's off, I don't know, its been nagging me for a while now." she said, her face dropping to a low frown.

Gwen gave her a rather undersatnding look, and slowly looked around the RV for anyone who was listening in. Then slowly, she rose from her seat and walked over to Hope, sitting quiet close to her.

"It's Kyle isn't it?" Gwen finally asked, blunt as always.

"What! No! What makes you say that?" She blurted out loudly, her voice dropping lower at the last part.

"I see too you know, he's been a bit, out of sorts for the past few weeks. I asked him many times, but he doesn't say anything. Maybe we should ask Grandpa to have a talk with him."

Gwen offered, making the other mage lighten up a bit. Hope looked over at the said person, who was now half - sitting on Gwen's bunk with his earphones on, his head cocked back and eyes closed. She saw his eyebrows twitch and slowly relax, his hold on the phone going lose.

' _Memories_ ' she thought, still looking at the boy who had intrigued her with his nonchalance and caring attitude at the same time. ' _Must've gone through a lot._ '

Just then, the RV started slowing down, coming to a slow halt at a gas station.

"Well _that's_ strange." Max said, looking at the fuel gauge rather dissapointedly.

"We should've had enough to run another 70 miles or so." he said, unbuckling his seat belt. Kyle too got up from the bunk, noticing the sudden stop in an abandoned gas station.

Max got up from his seat and walked over to the door, opening it slowly, raising a hand to cope with the glaring sun. He walked out of the rustbucket, heading over to its rear and bending down with some level of difficulty. When he saw what had caused the leak, he suddenly roared "Get back in the RV!"

Multiple spears emerged out of nowhere, piercing the entire RV's fortified plates, just like its fuel tank. This was definitely not a human threat. Ben peeped out of a window and quickly withdrew as a spear the size of a forearm skewered the glass where his head had once been.

"Guys," Ben said, his hands already trailing for his watch. "It's Six - Six."

Ben had once dealt with this scum earlier, when he was sent in as a bounty hunter for the omnitrix. The alien would assort to violent and even devious means, and showed absolutely no mercy in combat.

Besides these facts, Kyle knew that the Six - Six from the future was an expert long range combatant.

Combined with his agility in flying, he made a difficult opponent for Kyle whose attacks were primarily ranged, unless he planned to use his powers, which he was pretty sure he wouldn't use.

Ben slammed the omnitrix, and a brilliant green invaded the entire van. When the light cleared, Ben had already transformed into one of his aliens, one with a black and white body and long plugs as two lengthy extensions from his head. ' _Feedback'_ Kyle realised, still finding it irritating that Ben chose this form every single time and somehow still managed to get by. Kyle crawled over to the bunks, and from under them, he pulled a dark black over all and a bandana, putting them both over his regular clothing. He put his hands in further, and pulled out a long sword out of its sheath. However this sword wasn't just long, it looked very heavy and was pretty sleek too, both thin and bulky at the same time. Most of all, it was pitch black, with a dark red line going through the right of its midsection. Our mage hadn't taken her eyes off it from the moment he revealed the weapon.

' _That is one sexy blade_ '

"Ben!" he shouted as feedback ran right into the middle of the gunfire, dodging the bullets with ease. "I'm gonna kill him." he grumpled, as he too ran into the battle, both hands flying behind him. Gwen peeped out from the window and saw that there wasn't anymore firing towards the RV . Six - Six was now focussed on the boys, not expecting the second at the very least. Gwen set up barriers around feedback, blocking an occassional shot or two. Feedback looked back at Gwen and gave her a thumbs up, just as he was knocked down by a blow from a completely different direction.

' _Drones, lot of them_.' thought the auburn haired girl before quickly snapping to action, running right out of the vehicle. She tried shooting projectiles, but her magic was far less advanced to do any real damage to the armageddon of drones.

"That's the oldest trick in the book kid" said the other mage, who had taken up her place right beside her. "Lets try something new."

"C'mon Ben, just plug in and drain the juice outta his friggin suit," screamed an exasperated Kyle from the road as he watched Ben dangling by a ' _plug'_ from his foe's armor.

"I can't drain fuel you idiot! He's only using power for the guns and that's seperate. The rest is all him!" Feedback screamed right before he was tossed to the floor. Six - Six trained his guns on Kyle now, flying wildly at whipping speeds. Kyle was practically useless against flying targets, so he ran as much as he could, dodging each and every blow.

As he ran, he caught a glimpse of the platinum blonde mage, who was now holding two long whips made out of pure mana, surrounded by an army of dismantled drones scattered on the road, some lodged in the grooves that had been carved into the highway during the process. Also, she looked pale. ' _She's used up all her energy_.'

He was also tired from all this running, his legs were starting to fail him. Just as he thought, he slipped. He writhed as pain shot through his shoulder. As he fell, he twisted his body so as to face the creature responsible, and fell right on his back. He tried to crawl backwards, but the creature had already landed on his torso pinning him to the ground with a knife to his palm as he screamed in even more pain. ' _Should I use my powers...'_ he thought through it all as the bounty hunter put a gun right to his heart.

' _Maybe not'_ he relaxed, his mouth curling upwards ever so slightly.

"Get off him you alien fuck!" Came a scream as a whip nearly obliterated the bounty hunter's entire armor, sending him flying back to the abandoned gas station. You can guess what happened next.

Hope helped him as soon as she ran up to him. "What the hell were you thinking giving up like that?"

"No I..." but his words were stopped as he looked into her eyes. The memories, they were way too much. He looked away from her even while she was the only thing that kept him from falling, literally.

"Look I don't know what has gotten into you lately. I asked you but you never tell me. I'll leave this instant if thats what you want." she snapped, pissed off by his attitude despite the help she offered. What he returned however made her regret her choice of words.

"Its not you Hope. Its my - memories." he stuttered sadly as he slowly pulled her hands free off his shoulders and held them for a second, before he slowly walked towards the RV.

' _I'm sorry_.'

x--x--x--x--x--x

A day had passed since the incident. Kyle seemed even more off than usual, and she hadn't talked to him either, unsure of what to say. ' _Maybe he just needs to be alone_ ' Hope thought to herself, not knowing why she was so concerned about him. ' _He better not know I care, wait why do I care?'_ she thought again, glancing at the teen who was now in a sky blue T shirt, blankly staring at the road as it whizzed past right before his eyes, his ears tuned into his headphone. ' _He looks so, lost'_ her mind echoed, finding it hard not to think about the hurt soul.

Perhaps he felt the soft gaze, as he quickly turned to his right, catching a glimpse of the snow haired girl snapping her head away. She looked flustered too. Under normal circumstances, he might've actually felt rather embarassed, but this time around, he was angry. "Hey"

"What?" she said back quietly, knowing how this would end up.

"If that's sympathy that you're showing then keep it to yourself. I've got enough pity as it is, I don't need any more of that." he said removing headphone, and finally rested his head back on the glass.

"Honestly, I don't give a shit about what you've been through or anything." She replied just as cocky as him, if only more.

"All I want to know is why I'm involved in it." she explained, clarifying her earlier predicament.

"I told you it's not about you" he retorted.

"Then how come you're taking it all out on me?" she snapped back, almost slamming her hands on the desk. Both Gwen and Ben were near the driver's seat talking to Max, and she didn't want to attract any unwanted attention.

"Ok fine, you remind me of, someone." he replied, a little startled by her reaction.

"Who?"

He felt like a lump was forming in his throat, a few of the millions of memories he had sealed deep within making their way to the surface. ' _Kate_ '.

"No" he replied firmly, his hands laid out straight on the table.

"What? After all that -"

"How would you feel, if everyone you cared for, the only people you ever cared about, just dissappeared one day." He cut through her words, making her stop. She shifted on the couch until she was exactly in front of him on the opposite side of the table.

"Oh." ' _I've never had anyone I cared about.'_ she thought, not knowing what to expect.

"I just wish I could -" he tried to complete his sentence, but he couldn't, the words were caught up somewhere. His hand was shaking now, trembling so hard he couldn't control it. Just the he felt something soft wrap around his trembling hands, keeping them steady in its soothing warmth. He raised his bent neck, only to realise that his hand was now held in two of hers, a soft gaze spreading through her features as she did so. "It's alright." she said, trying to remain composed as usual. But it was clear now. She cared.

"No, its not." he said softly as a single tear ran down his cheek, and he put his head to her hand, crying it out. Everything he had bottled up inside him coming to a sudden downfall of tears. And she simply stood watch, as the once strong man fell apart within her hands.


	17. Truth

**_17\. Truth_**

"Why's he sleeping?" Gwen asked, curious about what had become of the boy who never slept on afternoons.

"He told me he had a headache" Hope replied, looking at Kyle who was resting peacefully.

"Wait, so he talked to you?"

"Yeah I guess."

"So you guys over it yet?"

"Probably."

Both of them looked at Kyle who had his head on his folded arms, sleeping on the desk as if he didn't have a care in the world. "He looks pretty, calm." Gwen said, eyeing the sleeping teenager curiously.

"Yeah, he does." replied the mage, remembering how he had dozed off in her hands. She felt both happy and sad of the thought at the same time ' _What is this feeling?_ '

"There's activity!" Ben boomed as he scanned the radar, startling almost everyone on board.

Kyle slowly stirred from his sleep, rubbing his eyes and yawning ever so slightly. "Ah, what time is it?" he said in a gruffy tone.

' _Well that's cute._ ' Our mage thought almost giggling at him.

Kyle saw her smile and almost instanly went marsian, clamping his mouth shut looking everywhere except her face. ' _How does he change so fast?_ ' she thought again, noticing his sudden shyness and attempts to hide it under a sleepy face.

"The radar's showing creepy energy readings." Ben said a bit quieter this time, peering into the radar from his seat infront.

"Gwen, put on the news channel, maybe something's up."

Gwen was more that willing to take that order, snatching the remote from Kyle's end of the table and turning on the mini TV.

 _Multiple incidents of wreckage and demolition of entire buildings have been reported in the town of New Carlisle in since one pm this afternoon. The cause of these incidents remains unknown, however, several eyewitnesses claim that they clearly saw a sandstorm and red lightning flash through the sites, and a man in the middle of it all. We have live footage from_ -

Gwen switched off the TV. She gave her fellow mage a worried look, as both of them knew what they had come up against. _Hex_.

"Take the road to the right Grandpa." Gwen said in a focussed tone, her hands on her spell book tightening. Hope got up from her place and walked over to the cabinets, opening the shelf and pulling out a small sack, one she hadn't used in weeks now. She dipped her hand into the small rucksack, finding plenty of stones remaining, along with a small spell book. _'It won't be enough'_ she thought, a small shuffle from behind distracting her from her reviere. It was Kyle, heading over to the wardrobe and simply tossing his black trench coat on his t - shirt and sheathing the long knife inside it, all in one swift move.

Hope walked over to him seeing this, standing right in front of him resting her arms on her hips. "You're not taking the knife today." she said sternly.

Kyle simply stood there taken aback by her sudden statement, his mouth slowly pressing to a thin line. "And who are you to say that?" he said, hitting the mark rather blunty. ' _shouldn't have said that_ '

"A friend, or atleast that's what I thought." she said, hitting right back, leaving him in the RV as soond as it came to a halt. ' _Damn_.'

x--x--x--x--x

People were running rampant for their lives as buildings and homes were scraped off the ground by shock waves of pure red energy. The snow haired mage had stopped running now, she simply stared at what was going on in the town. The energy didn't just break down houses. There were people in there, there were people everywhere. With each wave that hit, many were either skewered in half or broken limb by limb. The bodies of the dead would soon have a dark red aura around them, a sort of wavering flame of darkness. Hope knew what was happening, and yet she couldn't move a muscle. ' _No, not - again_.' as she looked on, another wave approached.

"Move it" Gwen screamed as she blocked the wave with one of her projectiles the mana simultaneously, blocking Hope from the remanants of the wave that could have easily decapitated her.

"I have to deal with this." Hope said firmly as she strode further into the centre of the destructive cirlce.

"What the hell are you doing!" Kyle screamed as he went running behind her.

"Stay out of this!" She screamed at him, making him stop in his tracks.

"Hope are you - "

"It's none of your bussiness Kyle!"

"It is you idiot!" he screamed back, seeing charmcaster at a loss for words.

"What if you just die out there!" he screamed in the midst of the whipping winds holding a hand to shield his eyes.

"Then I'll make sure I take him along." she replied just loud enough for him to hear, before running right into the fray.

"Dammit" he cursed as he followed her into the shockwave. ' _Figures_ '

The tatooed man was at the centre of it all, seething in the embers of red that seemed to come from all around him. "What the hell is he -"

"He's absorbing it." Hope cut through his words. "Their life force."

"Is that even possible?" he said, wondering how such spells even existed.

"This ends, now!" she screamed as she ran right towards him, whips of pure mana materialising at her sides. She slammed her rucksack to the ground as she ran. Golems emerged from it one by one, and soon Kyle was blocked out by a dozen of them from even seeing Hope on her rampage.

"That's just great." said the former assassin as he made his way through them even as they charged towards the power hungry sorcerer. Kyle ran as fast as he could, dodging the flying hands of the golems as they ran along his side, but right before he had completely cleared them, a shockwave swept him off his feet, smashing every single one of the golems in the process.

Pain shot through the forearms he had crossed to block the energy wave as he lay on the floor. He soon realised that one was cut up to the bone while the other was hanging merely by a tendon. His flesh had been cauterised by the wave, and he bleeding heavily. Now came the hard part.

Regeneration.

He writhed on the ground in pain as his bones snapped back into position, as his flesh and blood crawled back to where they once were, as his tears hit the floor. ' _So much blood..._ ' His throat hurt from the screaming, but he had known this pain for a long time, he knew it would end soon enough. The blood that remained on the floor dried up and rose as ashes, as he stumbled up to a stand, struggling to keep himself on his feet. ' _Big mistake_.' he thought as his vision turned red and black, to an infinite void of pain and despair. He pulled out the blades of exodus from thin air, the circles of magic around the back of his shoulders dissapparing as soon as he had withdrawn the cursed blades from the armory of hell. ' _This time, you'll stay dead_.'

Hope had stopped midst her run as she heard Kyle scream, and was running back towards him in the sandstorm riddled with shockwaves as she saw something walking towards her. It was Red. ' _Kyle_.' There he was, steadily pacing towards her with an aura of darkness shielding him from every wave that hit, wielding the dual blades in the backward fashion just as before. "This isn't your fight Kyle!" she screamed at him, but he paid her no heed. He didn't even look at her as he walked on to his target, the dark sorcerer. He whipped his blades on the ground, testing them while leaving large cracks on the asphalt in the process. " ** _Hex!_** " he screamed in a tone that could only be described as the cry of a vast multitude of cursed souls.

' _He's a goddamn legion_.' she thought, cold chills running down her spine.

"Die demon!" the sorcerer boomed as he rained hell on the dark being. The demon however dodged the waves of lightning easily as he jumped and dashed from foot to foot, advancing further towards Hex in each move. He whipped his blades lurching forwards, the swords missing their mark by a fraction and obliterating a nearby car instead. Hex whipped right past him and struck him from behind, jutting his staff right through Kyle's open back.

The demon didn't even flinch, as though the pain hadn't remotely affected it. Hex however had other plans. He shot a beam of explosive energy from his staff that had been lodged into the demon back. If it weren't for his quick turn to the right, he would have exploded from within, and regenarating from bits and pieces would be a very disturbing sight. Kyle fell to the ground again after flying a few feet from the explosion, struggling to get back as he regenerated. The shroud of darkness was gone now and so were the blades. ' _More payment_ ' he thought as his hands went to his coat and grasped on the knife within. ' _Thank God I didn't listen to her._ '

"Kyle stop!" Charmcaster screamed as she tried to keep her master busy while he recovered.

Hex simply shot her back with an armageddon of red lightning that showered on her from the skies above. She clamped her mouth shut as she tried to hold back the pain, struggling to get off the ground. She had avoided and shielded herself from most of the bolts, however the last few had struck her in the legs. They were scorched now, bleeding, and unlike Kyle, if she was struck down, all she could do was stay down.

Now that both of the nuisances were done with, the sorcerer moved on to the more fun part. "Do you know how your family died?" He said hysterically as he turned away from both of them, laughing to himself. "Loverboy?"

"You don't know a thing about them!"

"Oh I do! Infact I think I may know everything about you. I did my homework pretty well." He said, walking towards Kyle now, leaving Hope crawling on the ground, blood seeping from her legs each time she tried to stand. "You act like a hero while you're a monster, the darkest kind there is! But in the end, all you are is a little child who lost his family to a fire. All because of her!" he screamed, pointing his hand towards Hope.

When Kyle turned to look at her he saw terror, her eyes going blank as she breathed heavily. ' _No, Kyle couldn't be, he couldn't have lived in..._ '

"You remember the how the town caught fire don't you Kid?" The mad man said facing Kyle, a hint of sick humour in his voice. "How everyone died, how everyone screamed to death right before your eyes!" he screamed to Kyle's face as he tried to get back up with all the strength he had. "Don't you dare..."he said his voice wavering between his own and the demon's.

"I bet you can hear them screaming now. I bet it's wonderful." the sorcerer screamed as he lingered on the verge of insanity, taunting Kyle to do the one thing he was trained for in all of his life. To _kill_ him.

Kyle was on his knees now slowly rising from the blood riddled floor, the demon taking over.

"And all of that because one mage wanted everlasting power." he said in a sober tone, as if he had returned to the land of the sane. "Don't look at me kid, you know who it is." he said, as he looked at the girl who was on her feet now, struggling to keep up with her bleeding feet. Kyle couldn't think anymore. ' _Did she..._ ' His eyes widened as his mind processed what had been revealed. The darkness that surrounded him was gone again, now it was just one hurt child looking at a girl, a girl who had changed the course of his life, one who had led him to this darkness.

"Say hello to the person who scorched your family alive!" Hex screamed giddy with excitement, gesturing to Charmcaster with his hands. He walked over to Kyle, draping his free hand over the teen's shoulder. "Don't you think it's lovely to meet that person at last. She's been with you all this time and she didn't tell you? Oh, what a shame." he said taking his hands off, walking away from Kyle. "I'll let you settle this one here, just be sure not to mess with my _ceremonies_ next time will you." the sorcerer said as he walked into the subsiding sandstorm, not to be seen again.

Kyle didn't notice the sorcerer escaping nor the snow haired mage who struggled to stand before him. The world was blank to him for a while, the sounds of falling buildings and raging fires irrelevant if only for a while. ' _She was there_.'

He could hear muffled sobs and cries, but all felt dulled around him, all he could hear was the shallow beats of his heart. _'Does she think it was her?'_ he thought, remembering the day as clear as daylight ' _Name's Wrath_ '

Suddenly he snapped back to reality. He noticed his face was wet, streaks of tears had been making their way down his cheeks for a while now. He looked at hope who was now shuffling backwards in her thunder scorched legs, slowly muttering something to herself. He walked over to her slowly trying to calm her down.

"Stay back Kyle."

"I'm not gonna hurt you Hope"

"Didn't you hear him, I - I'm a monster!" she screamed and stuttered as she tried to shuffle away from him, almost stumbling to the ground a few times.

"Hope you're not a -"

"I murdered your parents godammit!" she cried out as she almost fell to the floor, tears making their way down her cheeks.

Kyle had closed the distance by now, and he caught her just as she was about to fall. He hugged her tightly to his torn up trench coat, even though she struggled to writhe out of his grasp.

"Calm down blondie, we can talk about this later." he said, noticing that she was slowly going slack, her arms and legs going weak from exaustion. She placed her arms on his chest followed by her head as she slowly caved into him.

"B-but I..."

"Later blondie." he said, loosening his tight grip on her to a soothing hug as she cried into his coat for sometime, gripping his coat as she leaned onto him. He felt her tears through his torn coat, warm and sorrowful. Right now, he was the only thing keeping her upright, at the same time holding down the pain that dwelled deep within. ' _My anchor_.'

"O-ok" she stuttered as she tried to stop crying and stepped away from him, almost falling while she did so. He caught her again, just as she tripped, and held her close to his chest as he looked at her. "You're bleeding."

"I deserve it."

"Bullshit." He shot back as he swept her off her feet, holding one hand the crook of her knees and the other at her back as he lifted her.

"Put me down Hunter." she said in a low voice.

"As if you can walk like that." he said smiling a little, looking at her face. ' _She looks pale_ ' he thought, a little worried now.

"If you insist." she said smiling back at him, before leaning her head on his chest, her hair falling to his knees in a silver cascade.

"You're just like me, you know that?" he said with a far off look in his face, staring at the wreck that had become of this peaceful town. However, he didn't get a response. What he saw instead was a platinum blonde girl who had fallen asleep against his body, resting on his arms peacefully. ' _We all have our demons, don't we?_ '


	18. Reveal

**_18\. Reveal_**

It was raining. The lights were bright as day, but the skies outside clearly betrayed the artificial illusion. They were dark, save for the few shining stars that remained to enchant the inhabitants of this sad little world. However the stars too were dead, in the end, all they saw was an illusion. ' _Just an illusion_ ' thought the former assassin as he sat at the bedside of a platinum blonde girl, taking short shallow breaths. The air smelled of disinfectants, a rancid odour that our present host wasn't accustomed to. He'd never found reason to visit such a place. It wasnt a place he needed to visit anyway, given his abilities.

"Visiting hours will be over by ten sir. After that only family members are allowed to stay in the patients room." said a nurse as she stood by the girl's sleeping form, taking down notes for the doctor in charge.

"Oh. It's fine we're her family." Max said, rubbing the back of his head rather akwardly. "Well that case sir, could you fill out the patients personal details?"

"Sure..." ' _Great_ '

Once the nurse was out, the old man let out a gruffled sigh.

"Well that livens things up." he said, looking at the sleeping mage and the teen at her side. The said teen's hand were just an inch from hers. He would occasionally move to wrap his fingers around hers, but would flinch each time he got close. Max wasn't one to judge, but he was pretty sure what was going on. ' _He'll figure it out, in time_ ' thought the old man, as his eyes wandered back to the sheet of paper in his hands.

"Oh great! We don't know her surname."

"She doesn't have one" Kyle chimed in, snapping out of his daze.

"Well in that case..." Gwen said in a rather satisfied tone. "Hunter will do."

"W-what!"

"Yeah, Hope Hunter, its believable." Ben joined, pouring even more salt into the wounds.

"Has a nice slang to it too." the old man commented.

"Stop it!"

However Max's hands were already on the move, filling the form out as the argument rolled on. Kyle didn't even know what hit him.

"It's official, say hello to Hope Hunter!" the ben announced holding the sheet high up in the air.

"And what would that make her to the hospital, a nineteen year old's wife!" Kyle shouted in response, not seeing the sense in all of this.

"I was thinking cousin, but I see you're having second thoughts." the old man taunted. The walls shone a bit more red after that comment.

' _Not you too_ ' thought Kyle as he almost felt himself crawl out of his reddened skin.

"Do you know her blood group?" Gwen asked right through the fuss, instantly changing the topic.

"How am I supposed to know?" Kyle snapped back.

"I-Its O... positive." came a rather croaky voice from the bed. ' _Hope?'_

"You're awake!" ben almost screamed dashing up from his chair.

"Yeah" she said weakly, getting up slowly to look at her legs. They were almost ok, only a few minor cuts that needed healing. Most of the wounds were cauterised from the cause itself, so she could be discharged within the next day or so.

"So how much did you hear?" Gwen asked her menacingly as she nudged her with a thumb, almost shocking her with the random question.

"Oh, I guess Hope Hunter'll do for a while" she said as she looked at her hands, smiling. ' _All this while he was right by my side. He's gone soft after all._ '

Kyle didn't say a word. He simply got up and left the room, dragging his feet all the way, breathing heavily. "I swear..."

As soon as he was out of the room, the mage suddenly drooped. She looked as though the life had been drained out of her, like a pale winter's moon. "What's wrong?" Gwen asked, noticing the sudden change.

"How?"

"How what?"

"How could he just, walk away from it like that?" she said almost shuddering.

Everyone huddled closer to the bed ridden mage, given the sudden change of mood. "Walk away from what Hope?"

"I killed his family damn it!" she said softly, her breath coming in panicked gasps.

The words had created an audible flinch in the room. Everyone of its residents were startled beyond compare, not knowing how to comprehend the sudden shockwave of words.

"What?" Gwen said softly, not wanting to push the subject.

"He couldn't have been there. No. I searched for survivors for days. He couldn't have - " she said between the tears that threatened to take her to the verge of insanity itself. Just like her master.

"Hold it together kid. Just tell us what happened." Max said, placing a reassuring palm on her shoulder.

x--x--x--x--x--x

"Yeah I'll stay with her. You guys can sleep in the RV."

"Kyle we could stay you know."

"I told you I've got this. Just go on already" Kyle said blankly as gwen walked towards the door to the RV, where Ben and Max were already calling it a night.

"Its not like anyone's gonna eat her alive or anything." she said as she noticed the teen looking rather disturbed.

"Given the kind of man Hex is, I don't know what to expect." he replied, cracking his knuckles with his thumb.

"Ok, just don't get any funny ideas." Gwen smirked as she closed the door behind her. Kyle didn't say a word as she left. ' _Just had to get that last one didn't you_.'

"Kyle" Hope called, making sure that no one else was left in the room.

"You heard again didn't you?" he said.

"You should go to the RV."

"You think I'll get any sleep? After what I heard today that is." He replied, his words as cold as ice.

"Just tell me your side of the story." he said, rubbing his knuckles.

"I don't remember much, but I'll tell you everything I know."

"I think I was around three years old when it happened. I was with my uncle. We were always on the move, just one week a place. Hex never took care of me or anything of that sort though. I was pretty much alone most of the time. whenever he saw trouble, he would just come out of nowhere and take me to some other town."

"Skip the crap." he said coldly, paying no attention to how hard she was struggling to phrase the massacre into words. She almost flinched at his comment.

"I didn't know the name of the town back then. I was practicing how to extract mana from the surroundings when some the townsfolk spotted me. They started calling me witch, sorcerer and some other shit."

"Go on."

"Soon they started throwing stones at me, some of them tried to grab me by the throat. They crowded on me like I was some sort of criminal. I was just a three year old dammit!"

"And what did you do?" he asked with the same blank tone, the same rage in his eyes.

"I panicked. I just screamed out for help. I tried crying. Nothing worked though. I thought I was dying. Sometime later, my vision turned kind of hazy. I- I don't know what happened but for some time, all their voices were muffled, by a scream. I think it was me. I saw a fire then, and I was in the centre of it. Everyone around me was burning. T- They were screaming at me. They tried to come close but they just died. Every single one of them." she said, caving into herself.

Kyle held her hand firmly, reassuring and shocking her at the same time with his reaction.

"Then." he pushed forward.

"Something red was coming out of them, and it was getting into my mouth. I don't know what it was, but was being forced into me. I couldn't even breathe. All I could do was hear their screams. They were begging me to kill them quickly." she said silently, her body trembling with fear.

"It was over in a matter of minutes actually" she said, tears running down her cheeks. "The whole town was razed to hell. I just cried. For hours I cried. Finally I started searching, for survivors. But there wasn't one. I swear I searched every nook and corner of the town for days, but all I found was burnt bodies." she shuddered.

"I think I fainted on the third day or so. When I woke up, Hex was carrying me. I tried to speak, but I couldn't"

"Did he say anything to you?"

"He said that I was worthy." she said blankly, her knees held tight to her chest. Her bandaged feet rubbed hard against the bed, but that wasn't pain, that wasn't pain at all.

"That was the one time he praised me. I worked hard for a long time to get his praise atleast once, but he never did, not after that one time. I despised him for that." she said, the smell of burnt flesh lingering in her senses.

"I know what I did now. The power that runs through my veins now is their life force, the souls of every single person in that town, except one."

" _Me_ " Kyle said, a cold chill running down his spine.

Neither of them spoke for a while. They simply existed as the lingering silence lay its firm grasp on the entire building. He could hear the moaning winds in the hallways, the far away cries of the shuddering leaves. Then he heard a ruffle. She was caving in again, caving into her shriveled form so hard that it almost hurt her chest, wrapping her arms so tightly around her knees that they turned pale. However, none of this was the true reason of his torment. It was her face, blank as a fresh sheet of paper. He couldn't read what was going on in her mind.

It was he who lost his family, but he had never once considered so far what it must have been to listen the voices of the hundreds of people she scarred for life. Whose life and pain are running through her veins. The _pain_ that fuels her.

He neither said nor did anyhing to stop her from her reviere. He simply stood watch as she went through her torment, silent as the night itself, but loud as a gutteral scream.

' _May the pain you carry define what you will be._ ' came the words of a devil long forgetten by a tortured child.


	19. Origin

**_19._** ** _Origin_**

"You really think you can walk on your own?"

"Let go! I can manage." the elder mage shouted back at the auburn haired girl as she grazed her way to the front seat, twitching in pain every now and then.

"Kid your being really stubborn here."

"I've been through worse." she mumbled as she flopped onto the front seat, completely ignoring the old man.

"How far to Cheserton." came another gruffy voice from the back of the RV.

"We'll be there by evening." Max replied, giving the GPS a second glance.

"By 8?"

"Almost."

Hearing this the gruffy toned teenager got out of his seat, walking past Ben who was lost in a game of sumo slammers, and Gwen who was trying to apply nail polish with her magical appendages. ' _Girls these days_.'

 ** _We've recieved reports of four more casualties from the New carlisle incident that occured two days ago. Twelve people so far have been declared deceased while seven more are still in casualty. The cause of this mass destruction still remains unknown..._**

Kyle slowly walked towards Gwen's bunk as he listened to the reporter repeating the incidents from the day before. ' _Twelve lives, and for what_.' his arms clenched as the thought registered in his mind, drawing out the rage that he had learned to contain all his life. ' ** _Let's just kill him. I'll cut him up for you, just say the word. Shadow_**.' the souls taunted from within him, a legion speaking all at once. ' _No_.'

Over the years of extensive training he had learned that the darkness within him was fueled by rage and despair. They fed on negative emotions like pain, which was their favourite. If the host could control these parameters then they could surely keep this darkness from materialising in this plane of existence. However, people ordinarily gave into such emotions, the very reason why this curse was entrusted to a select few. Pain in exchange for power. ' _Entrusted? What the hell am I thinking?'_

He pulled out his phone and connected his headphones to it, feeling the sudden urge to control himself. What better way is there to control a demonic legion inside your head than music? Or so he argued.

Skullcandy had really outdone themselves this time, the sound clarity was as soothing as ever. When it came to music, he was always peculiar about three things : quality, lyrics, and tone. It's what made good music after all, especially the lyrics part, save for the EDM category.

 _I shot for the sky, I'm stuck on the ground, so why do I cry, I know I'm gonna fall down..._

 _Down_ from Vampire diaries started trickling in through the head phones, slowly easing its way into his ears.

He'd loved this song from the day he heard it. The lyrics some how hit him. One could say it was, _relatable_.

 _I thought I could fly, then why did I-drown Oh, It's coming down, down, down_.

He heard a muffled voice in between the soothing music, which diverted him from his reviere. He took his headphones off with an amused look on his face, only to realise it was the white haired toddler shuffling towards him.

"How the hell do you not get bored?" she asked, almost struggling to keep her balance as she grazed her way towards him.

"Who get's bored while travelling?" he asked sarcastically.

"Me."

"Sucks to be you." he said, slowly pulling the headphones back over his head. Hope tried walking without grabbing anywhere for a few steps, right before she was hurled to the back of the RV by a bump. Kyle snapped into action. He jumped to his feet and wrapped around her just as she was about to fall flat on her face.

Even the mage was impressed by his amazing catch, what she didn't notice was that she was now practically clinging onto him for balance. Soon enough, Ben whistled from the seat right behind her. "Sweet Reflex!"

Both the assassin and the mage let out a sigh of relief. Had it been Gwen this would've reached a whole new level. Thankfully Ben wasn't a person who used his brain unless absolutely neccesary. One would describe him as a very smart idiot.

"Think you can stand now?" Kyle asked, unsure of how to proceed with the girl in his hands.

"Y-yeah sure." she stuttered in a rather angry tone, unable to hide her embarrassment under that near crimson blush of hers.

"Just sit down for a while will ya?"

"Okay."

Saying this, he went back to the bunk, and was almost about to lay on it when Hope came by and sat down with him. ' _Didn't see that comin_ '

"What you told me to sit right?" she asked him gruffly, before realising her folly. "Wait you meant – sorry." she said as she leaned forward to get up.

Just then, she felt a firm hand on her shoulder. "It's fine blondie." he said folding his legs in front of him so that one was raised, and then resting his hand on it.

"Okay." ' _Bad luck, bad luck everywhere._ '

"Well there's something I've been meaning to ask you Kyle."

"W-what?" he said trying to sound neutral, his heart thundering.

"It's just about your powers silly." she said, noticing his reaction.

"Well that was mean." he muttered to himself.

"Didn't hear you."

"It's nothing. What about my powers?"

"I don't know if its correct, but I did some research."

"I hear you."

"I figured what you're using was something along the line of dark arts, but its way beyond that. It falls under arcane magic."

"So it is magic after all."

"Are you telling me you didn't even know that much?" the mage snapped at him, while he simply recoiled.

"I haven't given it much thought actually."

"What?" she gaped at him.

"I don't use it much really. This must've been the first time I've used my powers twice in a month."

"Really, I thought you were an assassin?"

"That I am. I don't use my abilities for that though. I just do it like a normal assassin."

"Why?"

"Thing is, when I use it, I -- remember. "

Charmcaster simply remained silent to these words, knowing she had opened a wound again. If he was that desperate not to use his powers, the true extent of his memories would've been, terrifying.

"Then there's the thing with my hand you see." he said, slowly lifting his right arm to her.

"Are those, tatoos?" she said, running her left hand over his engraved skin holding his forearm in the other. ' _Rough_.'

"You still there?" he said, snapping her out of momentary lust run.

"Yeah yeah, it's just, I've never noticed them before." she said, looking at his fingers again. Strangely, the tatoo had appeared only upto the palm from his fingertips, an engraving of ancient origin.

"I think I'll need to do some research."

"Sure."

"But why are you so afraid of a tatoo?"

"It's not about the tatoo blondie. Thing is, every time I use my power, the area under the mark spreads, and every part under the mark gets powdered. Right up to the bone." he said again, staring at his fingers, which were the only affected areas so far. The marks were faded near the palm, a sign of where it would spread to the next time he used his power.

"It regenerates right?" she asked, still holding his palm in hers.

"Hurt's like shit though."

"What the point of all this?" she said, gazing at his hand again.

"Like I said, its all about the pain."

"It seems it is." she replied tensely.

"So about my powers."

"It's of ancient origin and it's beyond dark arts. It's all I've figured out so far. It might also be the reason why my attacks don't affect you."

"Really?"

"Arcane magic is superior to almost any form of magic that exists. Thus it easily negates any form of magic inferior to it. It's how magic works."

"Then how come Hex could attack me?" he asked, to which she replied after a moments worth of pondering.

"He's got a few arcane spells up his sleeve, but I'm pretty sure he can only use the basics, even at his level of expertise. He's a pretty easy kill for you if you ask me."

"I see. But there's one more thing."

"What is it?"

"Is there anything you can do about the voices?"

"Like what?" she asked, not quiet following him there.

"Can you make them stop, I feel like I'm on the edge with them playing with my head."

"You mean you can hear them inside your head too?"

"Yeah. It's sort of disturbing actually."

' _This is way darker than I thought it would be.'_

"I'll look into it."

"Think you'll be able to walk soon enough?" he asked her, running out of topics. Some how, he found talking with her somewhat pleasing.

"I can walk just fine. Jerk." she retorted as she rose from the bunk and wobbled her way to the front seat, yelling at Gwen to go back to the table.

 _'So much for courtesy.'_ he thought as he stared at the road, whizzing past his eyes. ' _It's going pretty fast, isn't it kate.'_

Author's note: My updates from the next chapter on might take longer than the usuals, but I'll try to keep my fic updated as much as possible. Besides, I thought I might give the serious plot a break for this chapter. There were some hints hidden too. Till next time


	20. Sister

**_20\. Sister_**

"Hey, spacing out already? Earth to Kate."

"I'm here." Katlyn replied, snapping out of her thoughts, now looking at the ten year old in front of her. He gazed at her features curiously, his dark red eyes gleaming as he did so. ' _A cute little thing you are._ ' she thought, laughing lightly to herself. She patted him lightly on his little head, making him bend his neck ever so slightly.

"So what was that all about?" the kid asked in a squeaky voice.

"What?"

"People don't just smile at a wall right?" he asked, looking curious. ' _Hell, kid doesn't even know how to be sarcastic.'_

"You just, remind me about someone." she said, ruffling his jet black hair. The child simply clamped his eyes close as the seventeen year old continued her rampage on the rest of his face, begging her to let go of his cheeks.

"So, when are you leaving?" the boy asked, again gazing at her with that puppy eyes of his. The teen almost melted in his gaze.

"I won't be long Kyle, its just a few days."

"Ok. Just be back okay." he said, turning his back towards her, slowly shuffling away from her.

"Why the long face?"

"Just, don't wind up like, the other guy."

"He's just on a job or something Kyle, I'm pretty sure he's got his reasons. Maybe he's undercover?"

"I haven't even seen him Kate, I couldn't care less about what happened to him. Just don't go off like that, that's all I'm saying." he sqeaked.

' _Tough words coming from a ten year old_ '

"You know what, keep this." she said as she gave her watch to the child, ruffling his hair once more. "Just you wait."

x--x--x--x--x--x

"Why?" he silently mouthed to the starry skies that floated above him nine years later.

That was the last time he had seen Kate. A month from her _dissapearance_ , she was declared MIA in the PNAF office, dropping him back into the darkness from which he had seeked refuge for the past six years. Taking into account his mental state at that time, the higher authorities saw it as the perfect time to begin his training. The violent nature of what he had experienced in the past was more that enough trauma for the training to feed off, however the recent dissappearance of the only person he cared about ever since made the effort all the more easier. They made him the perfect soldier. Or in his case, the perfect assassin.

The winds whipped at his dark blue sweatshirt as he lied on the soft grass beside his black hoodie. The sky had filled with stars in every nook and corner that night, and being on the top of a hill made the view all the more amazing. People often say that starry skies bring happy memories, but for Hunter, they were always laced with sadness. Every time he thought about his family he would remember their screams, and every time he thought about his friends, he would remember that the people he once knew were dead. The only true comfort was that they were alive in this timeline.

"You there?" came a question from the calming breeze. _'Hope?'_

"Why're you here? Wait how did you even know I was here?" he said, sitting upright

"I tracked you." she said calmly as she scaled the small hill.

"How?" he asked again, confused this time.

"With this." she announced as she held up his phone, fiddling with it carelessly.

"Who told you to touch that!" he scowled, before snatching it right out of her hand.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to -" but even before she finished, he was on his way back to the RV, shoving the phone deep into his pocket.

"Some _secret_." she scoffed, as she too followed him back to the RV.

Eventually, she caught up to him, struggling however to maintain pace.

"Just slow down already."

"Why?"

"To hell with it." she cursed as she yanked him by the hand, forcing him to a halt.

"Ok I'm sorry I took your phone, but my options were limited, I couldn't even find your goddamn headphones."

"Limited?"

"Yeah. It was either your phone or your underwear. Did you want me searching for you in public with your underwear in my hand?"

"No thanks blondie."

"I guessed as much. What's with the phone anyway?" she said as she slowly picked up pace.

"You don't watch -"

"You have got to be kidding me." Kyle deadpanned as he cut right through her dirty thoughtstream.

"Then what is it?" she asked again curiously. ' _She's used to getting what she wants_.' Kyle thought as she kept on nudging him second after second, reassuring him that his thoughts were true.

"I don't wanna to talk about it."

"Well in that case." she said as her voice faded into the night.

"Do you like... um... star gazing?" she asked after a moments wait.

' _She left the topic? Just like that? Sweet._ '

"Sort of."

"Does it bring back memories?" she asked again, staring at the sky as she slowly walked through the deserted roadside.

Now, she had his attention. Kyle instantly snapped his head, looking at the snow haired girl with shock. ' _Does she know? What it's like?_ '

"You too?" he asked to confirm his intuition.

"I hear screams." she replied in her usual off handed fashion, as if it was something she had adapted to through the course of her last fifteen years of life.

 _'Why do you try to hide it? I can see right through you. I see, the pain.'_ he thought as he felt his fists balling up.

"Tell me Kyle, why do you live?" she asked him out of the blue.

"What kind of a question is that?" he replied, uncertain of what exactly she meant.

"Reason, goals, ambitions anything."

"I wanted to avenge my parents first. It's all I had in mind for a few years actually." he said, clutching his phone hard in his pockets.

"What changed?" she asked blankly, staring straight ahead. The RV was in view now.

"I did. I think I grew, soft. It was hard not to." he replied with a straight face that rivalled hers.

"This PNAF, had some good people then, right?"

"Oh they're all assassins if that's what you mean. We killed because that was all we ever knew."

"So they were good to each other then?" she asked again, this time making her point clear as crystal.

"Yeah, couldn't ask for a better family I guess." he replied, his mask failing to aid him. His face broke, sadness was evident on his drooping features now. _'But then, why's he smiling like that?'_

"In the end, everyone leaves." he said, gazing at his watch.

"On the same boat I guess" she replied, joining him in his grief with a soft smile.

"Hey come on already it's ten!" Gwen screamed from the RV as she saw them approaching.

A cool breeze swept by the pair walking in the dark, sending the girl hysterical with shivers.

"Cold." she said, her teeth jittering lightly.

Kyle didn't say a word in reply. He simply unzipped his hoodie and wrapped it around her, leaving her walking speechless.

"I – um, thanks." she said, unable to formulate the right words. The warmth sent soothing ripples through her body, and she wrapped the hoodie closer around her addicted to the heat. ' _His heat_.'

"You know it's the second time you've done this." she reminded him, remembering that rainy day.

"So you do remember." he replied, smiling fondly at the memory.

' _Atleast he's happy now._ ' she thought as she approached the RV.

Kyle made his way in first. She followed behind him, but was stalled by Gwen for some particular reason.

"Making progress now aren't we?" Gwen said dragging the words longer than neccessary just to tease the teenager.

"It's not like that Gwen!" Hope replied, keeping herself quiet enough so that Kyle wouldn't hear.

"Oh yeah. That's right. Totally explains why you're wearing his hoodie." Gwen snapped back, enjoying her little night session with the charmcaster.

"No he just gave that to keep me warm." she said, blushing pink as soon as she realised how that sounded.

"Yeah, I saw him wrap it around you." she said flatly, but soon following up with a smug look on her face.

"Just go to sleep already." Hope replied drowsily, eager to crash at her shade.

"Okay, better not hear anything from the roof, might just come and check you know?" she deadpanned, leaving the other mage out there red as a tomato.

By the time they had finished with their chit-chat Kyle was already out of the RV, wearing his dark blue tee and a pair of shorts, holding a blanket and a pillow in his hands.

"Come on." he said, as he climbed up the ladder with his free hand and the other's elbow.

"Be right there." she said drowsily, unable to cope up with Gwen's smug look.

"Don't be late" gwen whispered from behind her. ' _What will I do with her_?'

x--x--x--x--x

"Hey"

"Didn't sleep yet?"

"Not when the sky's like this." Kyle said, looking up yet again at the beautiful sky.

"So, Ben's slept already?" he asked the mage, who was now throwing her pillows and blankets on the open shade.

"Yeah, that's not like him though." she replied, as she got down into the shade.

' _Thank God she's wearing tracks_.' Kyle noted.

"Right."

"Hard to sleep when the sky's like this huh?" she asked, settling into her makeshift bed, dozing off slowly.

"Yeah, every time you open your eyes, it's like they're smiling right at you." Kyle answered, his voice breaking from exhaustion as well as grief.

"What about you, do you hear them scream?" he asked drowsily, slowy passing out. Maybe he could sleep after all.

"No." she said, after which her breaths got shallow, as if she had already fallen asleep. She was too exhausted to correct him now.

' _I screamed_ '


	21. Falling for you

**_21\. Falling For You_**

The steets were filled with people. Anxiety and happiness were all over the town of Ingleside, the denizens of the town filing through its narrow sidewalks huddling close to each other just to keep themselves warm. Colourful lights and loud music adorned the usually silent town with an air of festivity, an infectious sense of thrill spreading all over the tourists who had come to visit Texas in its true self. A warm breeze from the ocean close by spread ripples of warmth on the shivering townsfolk as it ripped the hood off one man who walked lonely in the crowd. A man who no one noticed, walking amongst them, yet not truly one with the crowd at all. He wore a dark inscripted cloth, cut at his shoulders, and a cape that fluttered in the wind. Tatoos adorned his skin which was pale as the moon itself, and his long black hair flew back with the wind that had taken his hood off. Determination gleamed in his crimson eyes.

"In the end, you have to die."

x--x--x--x

"Kyle. Kyle!"

"Huh? Not again." Kyle said gruffly as he woke up, looking over at the people who were staring at him from below. It must be strange watching some one wake up from the shades of an RV, given the time of the day. It was already ten in the morning, and he had slept right through it without even noticing all the ruckus going around him. ' _Good thing I dont sleep naked then.'_

"What's going on here?" He asked Hope, still dazed from the long sleep.

"Don't know. I just got up right now."

"Shouldn't have slept that late." he said rubbing the back of his head, looking at her face. She was sitting on the shades right next where his was sleeping just a moment ago. She was probably right when she said she had just woken up, because he could see clearly that her eyes were rather unfocussed and her hair was disheveled beyond measure.

"So that's what you call morning hair." he said as he stared at the mess. The girl actually pouted for a second before trying to tie it up, but finally wound up just setting it down for the time being. ' _Some one's expressive today.'_

"You're not so bad either." she told him just before she got down the ladder.

In a moment both of them were on the ground, making their way to the front door. Somehow, Kyle's hair was pretty settled when she noticed him after he came down. ' _I see what you did there_ ' she thought with a small smile making its way to her face.

"What's with the rush out there?" Kyle announced once he was inside the RV.

"What took you two so long?" Ben said, staring quizically at the pair as they made their way to the table.

"Must've been really tired to sleep like that." Gwen nudged from Ben's side of the table. Hope glared daggers at her as Kyle looked on still confused.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, clueless.

Hearing this, both girls nearly slapped their hands to their faces, dropping their heads way lower than before.

"What?" Kyle asked again, just as clueless as before.

"It's called a facepalm. Expresses severe dissapointment and sympathy." Gwen explained to him sarcastically.

"You know what I'm gonna hit the shower." Charmcaster said as she woke up and headed over to the bath.

Judging by Kyle's face, he was pretty slow on the dirty side of things. "Never mind." Gwen said finally, completey dropping the topic.

"Okay... So what's with the people again?" he asked , returning to his first question.

"It's the Texas State Fair. The skate park's getting rigged with new rides as we speak, atleast that's what I heard. Plus there's gonna be tonnes of other stuff we've got to check out. I heard there's this reptiles exhibition, and there's gonna be a dog show, maybe even a horse race!"

"She belongs in a zoo." Ben said flatly, staring at the activity outside through the windows. Gwen instantly replied with an elbow to his gut, one of her favorite moves on her most favourite target.

"OW!"

"You asked for it."

"Guys." Kyle interrupted as he watched the cousins go full out on each other. There was no stopping them now. He watched ben trying to grab his cousin by the neck fruitlessly as she played around with him like a toy.

"She knows Karate! Help me out Kyle!" he screamed between the cheek pinching torture.

"Like she said, you asked for it."

"It's not fair! She doesn't do anything to you!"

"That's because I don't tease her, Idiot. Plus, she doesn't stand a chance." He said as he watched the auburn haired girl stop her rampage with a single annoyed ' _Hmph_.'

Gwen knew well of Kyle's abilities in combat and chose not to fight with him no matter what, even if she was sure he wouldn't fight back. Losing wouldn't be a problem for her, but not in front of her numbskull cousin. That would a new problem altogether.

Kyle smiled at the gesture, but his thoughts were entirely focussed on something else. The sound of water trickling kept gnawing at the back of his ears. He could literally see droplets from the back of his mind as they made their way out of the shower head, dropping softly on snow white hair. They were slowly joining now, into tiny little streams that gently rippled through her eyebrows, making its way down the bridge of her nose, arriving now at her full lips. They were at her chin now, making their way further down her slender neck to her bare upper chest, before slowly rising to her bre-

'Boner!' his mind snapped from his lucid yet alluring thoughts, now trying to calm down his body that was nearly sweating and panting out of exhaustion. He gave his member a sidelong glance. Apparently shorts weren't enough to solve this problem.

' _What did I do to deserve this?'_

"You alright?" Gwen asked, instantly noticing the sudden change in his mood.

"Y-yeah, alright here." he answered, wanting to focus on the problem at hand. ' _Cold shower. ASAP_ '

"I've never been to a fair actually." said Hope walking out of the bathroom, drying her hair with the towel in hand.

' _Beautiful_ ' he thought, his mind reeling back into place.' _Wait, is she coming here? Ohhh fuck!'_ he snapped, trying to think of random things to calm his unwelcomed senses. ' _Chairs, tables, chairs, tables..._ ' he pictured randomly as he remember American Pie. ' _It's working!'_ he thought as he felt his member calming down. He knew he'd find that useful someday. Thanking the A rated movie for its priceless advice, he moved over a bit so that Hope could have a seat. ' _You have no idea what you're doing to me.'_

"Well yes I've gone to fairs but I haven't really enjoyed them or anything. Never had the time for that." she said, gazing at her fingers as she spoke. They were rough and ragged, and showed no signs of being manicured or cared for in any manner, save for what seemed like black nail polish that was coated a very long time ago.

"We should go then. I'll ask Max to stay the night here." Kyle said, noticing how much she actually wanted to go there. He was never a fan of such commotions, way too many people there for his taste. He prefered quiet places much more, silence was his comfort zone.

"No that's not what I meant, we should -"

"We're staying. Period." he said as he got up from his seat, patting the mage on her shoulder as he made his way out to meet up with Max.

"Ok." Ben said, making the girls turn towards him.

"I've been trying to avoid this for a while but I really think he's into you Hope." he declared. Stupid as he may be, he wasn't a complete doofus.

"You think?" Gwen shot sarcastically at her cousin.

"He, likes me?" Hope said just to confirm her thoughts, slowly blushing pink.

"Isn't it obvious? You're like the only person's he's opened upto." Ben replied incredulously.

"He's still hiding. A lot." she said quietly, almost regretting the possibility that he liked her as much as she did.

"He's got his own share to deal with Hope, as far as I know, you're the one who knows most about him."

"I am?" she asked, giving the revelation some thought. _'I a_ _m.'_

"Yup." Gwen replied to her question, thinking it was directed at her.

"We're staying the night guys!" Kyle's voice ringed through the RV, turning all heads his way.

"We'll go to skate park at, say four?" he asked facing Hope, amused by her gentle smile. ' _You've changed_.'

"Thanks." she said, beaming at him.

' _I've changed too, haven't I_.'

x--x--x--x--x

An orange light illuminated the once blue skies as the group set out to spend some ' _quality_ ' time as the old man of the lot described it. If conditions were hectic in the morning, the evenings definitely were a whole new level. The anxiety and energy was barely an inch short of chaos. Children ran right through the closely huddled group of five despite the biting cold. On the whole, it was truly a festivity to behold.

"Quiet the ruckus these guys have going on here." Kyle whispered, trying to calm himself. He was never a people person begin with, and crowds were like Kryptonite to him.

"Get a grip will ya?" Hope replied to his nagging, her hand lightly brushing him from time to time.

' _How am I supposed to do that when you're the one making me nervous_.'

Kyle continued on these lines of thought as they kept following the crowd, and finally reached their destination. Skate Park.

A huge banner out front greeted them, with huge letters written in all possible colours. They read ' ** _Texas State Fair!_** ', officially welcoming the denizens to enjoy their time in the wild country of Texas. Stalls spread out for a long way infront of them illuminated by banners and LED's of every colour known to them. At the end of the line were the much anticipated rides and main attractions, Dog show and Reptile exhibition included. In the centre of it all was the the enormous giant wheel, shining purple in the winter night sky, its carriages seating the happiest of people in the whole fair.

Kyle took a rather morbid look at his environment, finding it to be a stupendous waste of electricity and resources. He was more a rationalist one could say, a person who wasn't always into emotion or fun as such when push came to shove. However one look at the awestruck girl who stood beside him changed all of it in an instant. The colourful lights glittered in her hair, her eyes wide with amazement and her mouth holding a quiet smile. He felt his hand grow cold and numb as he realised that her fingers were already entwined in his, grasping them tight as she marveled at the exuberent sight.

"So, that's what a fair's like." she spoke calmly in an effort to hide her excitement beneath it. However, her face gave it all away. It was quiet obvious that she'd never been this happy her entire life.

' _We're not even in the rides yet_.' Kyle thought as he continued to look at her awe struck figure. He felt like he would do anything to keep her happy. Why he felt so? Absolutely no idea.

"Let's get on with it already." Ben said as he tugged at the daydreaming girl by her arms.

"Hold on Ben." Gwen interrupted.

"She's never been to a fair before and I'm pretty sure she wants to go to the place she wants to atleast the first time around." Gwen explained. "So we'll split. You'll come with me and Grandpa, and we'll go where we want to. We'll leave Kyle with Hope. "

"Why?" Ben asked, in over his head again.

"Just look at him Ben." she snapped. Ben turned his attention to the boy, realising instantly how uninteresed he seemed.

"Yeah, he looks like he'd rather die." Ben replied.

"Close enough. Doofus."

After explaining the situation to Max, Gwen walked over to Kyle to tell him the news. On hearing the whole plan, Kyle started acting a bit, strange. "Why me?" he asked, almost at the verge of a nervous breakdown. ' _It's one thing to be with packed to the nose with people, but going with her? What have I gotten myself into?_ '

"It was your idea Kyle, just suck it up already." Gwen dissmissed him with a wave, walking back to her lot and going their way.

"What? Did they ditch us?" Hope asked him, walking over with two cones of ice cream in her hands.

"No. No, they just, never mind." he replied, convinced that it would be useless anyway. Plus, it could make things very akward.

"Where are they then?" she asked him again.

"Oh, they're just going around the place, seeing stuff and all." he said, trying o make something up. "We'll just call em when we're done."

"Okay." she said, before running off to another stall.

' _This might take a while_.'

x--x--x--x--x

The tired ex – assassin thought that she'd go through every ride that came her way, but he was utterly surprised by her reactions to each ride. In case of most stalls or rides, she'd just stare at them with an immeasurable happiness seizing her features, and in the case of a few others, she would quietly ask him if she could go.

Through out the whole endeavour he was treated more as a sort of parent than a friend. It wasn't long before he decided to break the truce.

"Can you wait for a minute? I'll be back real fast, just stay right there okay?" said the snow haired teenager before attempting to run off again. This time around however, he tugged her by her arm.

"Oh, uhm, okay then let's go." she said, feeling as though she had gone too far.

"You know you didn't even ask me one time."

"Huh?"

"If I wanted to come along." Kyle said, hiding a light smile.

"But I thought you hated rides."

"Yeah, well it does look like you're having fun, so..."

"We're going on that one!" she said instantly, dragging him over to a rather short line of people.

' _Well that went smoother than planned_.' he thought, looking around the busy park. ' _Wait, is this the... the fucking ROLLERCOASTER!_ ' He could suddenly feel his heart thundering inside him.

 _'Not smooth. NOT smooth!'_

"Do we really have to..."

"Don't worry alright, I'll be right next to you."

' _Just when I thought things couldn't get worse_.'

"Oh look, our ride's here." Hope announced as the coaster slowed down to a halt.

"This is a bad idea."

"Come on you're like a dark demon king but you're afraid of a roller coaster?"

"What the-? _Demon king_? What the hell are you even saying?"

"You do look the part. When you go all out that is. " she corrected herself.

"Thanks a lot. You just made my day. Worse." he replied flatly as the line moved forward. ' _No turning back now.'_

Hope got in and buckled up as soon as the person in front of her moved, and watched Kyle turn back for one last time before sitting down right next to her. "This better be good."

"Just try to keep your eyes open." she giggled looking at his ripped frame jittering like a cornered cat.

A loud beep was heard, and soon enough, the seat belts clamped into place. The ride started moving slowly as Kyle's grip on the armrest tightened. His shivering hand was greeted by a cold yet strikingly comforting arm, a softness that spread lightly through his arms. He turned around to look at the platinum blonde next to him, as she looked at him with a curious look on her face.

"Take it easy Kyle." she said as the coaster ascended the steep incline.

"I'm not scared ok!" he snapped, still trembling under her arms. He looked down to see the ground several floors below him. He was seriously considering closing his eyes.

"You're sweating." she said to him as she wiped the sweat off his cheeks and forehead as he looked at her face. Her hands made their way to the back of his head, clutching his hair in her fingers. Kyle couldn't help but return the gesture, his free hand slowly following suit, sliding softly through the side of her face before slowly settling on her cheek, rubbing slow circles with his thumb. Their eyes met in a soft gaze, and slowly their foreheads followed. He was so close now that he could feel her breath, see the colourful lights dance off her elegant features as she closed her eyes, waiting.

A small click was heard, and they were suddenly speeding down the tracks fast as wind. Both of them would've been dissapointed if they didn't feel like they were about to die very soon. The ruckus went about for the ten minutes that followed. Kyle kept his eyes closed as tight as he could and screamed to the end of the terrible nightmare. He could hear her asking to keep his eyes open from time to time, but he ignored it all by just screaming louder. Apparently everyone was screaming. What an interesting activity.

By the time they got out, Kyle looked like he had been hit head on by a bullet train, his body stuggling to keep itself from falling to bits and pieces. His long black hair was disheveled and his red eyes was blood shot, making them look more like red holes than eyes.

Despite the fact that the mage thoroughly enjoyed the ride, she too looked pretty winded. Her appearance could only be defined by Kyle as a fatal case of morning hair that he had experienced earlier in the day.

Once they were out, the pair took a moments look at each other, and pretty much laughed their hearts out. The pair eventually leaned on the makeshift walls, spent and completely out of breath. Kyle's knees gave way as he crumpled to the floor. Hope followed him in his defeat, clearly eager to get some RR.

"That was..." his words trailed off remembering how close he was to her, how her breath felt on the nape of his neck, how he couldn't close the gap. ' _Unexpected_ '

"... Amazing!" she finished the sentence for him. For a moment, Kyle didn't understand what she meant, the ride or the moments they shared. Suddenly, he felt his phone ring. He picked up the call and recognised the voice as Max's, asking him to come to the exit in a minute. He murmed a simple ' _Yes_ ' into the phone as the old man hung up, leaving him down as hell. ' _And just when I was happy_.'

"That's... an interesting wallpaper you've got there." she said as she peered into his phone from over his shoulder. The picture was simple, minimalistic as a matter of fact. It simply held the words ' ** _LIVE.DIE.REPEAT_**.' in pure white in a plain black background, aligned to the centre.

"Yeah, its from a movie." he said as his voice started dropping, remembering exactly why he had chosen it. ' _Relatable, again_.'

"Which one?"

"Edge of tommorow." he said as he got back on his feet. He didn't even bother to look back for Hope as he walked towards the exit.

"I've never heard of that movie." she said quietly.

"That's because it hasn't been released yet." he replied, devoid of any emotion. Hope was pretty shocked by his sudden change in attitude.

"Is it just me, or am I really good at pissing you off."

"It's not like that." he said, turning around to face her, only to realise that she had stopped in her tracks. She looked, hurt.

"Not your fault blondie." he said once again, now walking over to her. "I didn't mean to go off like that." he said, draping an arm over her shoulder and hugging her close to his side. Hope said nothing for the rest of the walk, moving silently with her arms wrapped around herself while basking in his warmth all the way. She was never a warm person to begin with. The sensation of heat or comfort were seldom found in her life, leaving her out in the cold. Now that she was finally warm, she couldn't seem to get enough of it. The RV was in sight now, and in her heart she knew that she would have to let go soon. She couldn't let them see her with him like this out of the blue. Besides she knew all too well that the thought was probably passing through his head too. So she took the lead.

The snow haired mage stopped dead in her tracks, almost yanking Kyle to a sudden halt. "What's wrong?"

"Well um they're in the RV you know."

"Of course they are, Max just called me."

' _Idiot. Cute... idiot_.'

The mage in his arms was flustered now, dropping her head low. She slowly reached for his hand and gave it a tug, and soon he realised his mistake. He quickly withdrew his arm from her shoulder, and dug it deep into his jacket. "Yeah, forgot." he stuttered embarassed by his foolishness.

"Well, its been a fun night. And um uh..." Hope dragged on as she struggled to find the right words. Eventually, she gave and dragged him to his side, placing a small kiss on his cheek before walking towards the RV.

Kyle stayed back for a moment as he watched the mysterious young girl walk away from him, leaving him utterly breathless. ' _You never cease to surpise.'_


	22. Unveil

**_22\. Unveil_**

The distant dripping of water and the silent wailing of the winds were the only sounds to be heard in the cave that had once been a source of shelter to many a distant traveller. After decades of waiting the cave finally welcomed its new visitor's shallow footsteps with conflicted enthusiasm, as it knew that nothing good could come of their sudden arrival. They would stay camp for the day maybe, take shelter from the rain for an hour or two at the most, and eventually embark to their destination. Everyone leaves, after all.

"So, they'll be crossing by here you say." A voice muffled by the dripping of water echoed through the cave, somewhat male.

"I'm certain of it. The Tennysons visit this cave every time they pass through the area. It seems to be of some importance to them, although I'm not sure what." Came the response, much more high in pitch than the former.

"Fair enough. We don't have to be here though. That cliff we came by should serve as a good vantage point." Said the man as he lit his torch, his dark red eyes gleaming in the flickering flames.

"What, you're gonna shoot him down again like last time?"

"No."

"Then what are you gonna do?"

"We leak the information." The man replied with a deadly grin spreading across his face.

"To who exactly?"

"To the one who needs it the most."

He was being cryptic again. The young lady sighed now, pulling her hood away from her face. Her brown hair glimmered in the flickering light. She seemed, happy.

"That house better be good." Said the woman who now stood by him, holding his hand.

"Of course it is. Just one last job sweetie, one last job."

x--x--x--x

"How far out is Rockport?"

"A day at the most. We're stopping by another place before that, so make that a day and a half." Max replied to Hope as she scanned the region's satellite images.

"But there isn't a single town out here. Other than Rockport that is."

"Who said anything about towns?" Max replied, his own excitement building up.

"The cave right?" Kyle said from behind both of them, leaning forward while gripping both of their seats for support.

"What cave?" The mage asked, uncertain of how Kyle knew of it in the first place.

"Ask him yourself."

"It's how I met their grandma." Max replied to her even before she phrased the question.

"You met your future wife in an isolated cave of all places?"

"Yeah, we were…. Uhm.. trekking. There were a lot of people and then there was this really huge storm and…."

"And that's about it." Kyle deadpanned, seeing Max running low on lies. Telling people that his wife was actually an alien isn't very easy the first time around, given the fact that he has grandkids too.

" _O….kay_." Hope replied, not knowing what to make of the old man's jittery reply.

"We'll be there in a few minutes" the old man finally said, collecting himself. It was already four and given the one hour trek they would get back on their wheels for the day.

"Guess we'll be camping here for the night." Kyle said as he walked back to Gwen's bunk where the cousins were now playing a game of Monopoly.

"Hey Kyle?" Ben asked him from his corner of the bed.

"Yeah."

"You ready for the beach yet?"

"What beach?"

"Rockport Beach! Duh."

"Like I said, I haven't been to the place."

"You better buy something to wear. It's gonna be awesome!" Ben nearly screamed as he got bankrupted. He looked like he didn't even care he lost.

' _Guess I'll buy some shorts when we hit town. Wait a second_.' He thought as another factor crossed his mind. ' _This might be fun after all._ '

x--x--x--x

In a matter of minutes, they reached their destination. There was a lonely parking lot by the side of the road, shrouded in weeds and what not. The Rustbucket rumbled to a stop as it aligned itself with in the faded strips, although the whole lot was empty. One by one, it's passengers exited the massive vehicle.

"This used to be a very busy place once." Max muttered, just loud enough to be heard by the group.

"Another reason why we believe he is ancient." Gwen whispered as she nudged at Hope, making her giggle. The action was greeted with a firm knock to the head by the old geezer, followed by a hearty laugh.

"Don't go rubbin off on your old man Gwen." He said as he continued down the path in a steady pace.

"I though Texas was supposed to be a desert." Kyle said as he looked around. He was now deep within the heart of a dense forest. The air felt humid and suffocating, the tall trees and the lush greenery sparkled in the fading sunlight. The sky was almost orange now, a sign that it would be dark soon enough. Kyle had never expected to see this. He'd been to a forest once on an assignment, but that was in the morning. Even the wildlife channels usually showed forests when it was bright and sunny, or when it was so dark that you couldn't see a damn thing if you wanted to. But seeing one in the evening was, extraordinary. The orange light danced about in the lush greenery, spreading vibrantly through the droplets of dew that clinged to leaves, ready to fall at a moment's notice. "It's pretty neat isn't it?"

"Yeah, we've never been here around this time." Ben responded to Kyle's words after a moment.

Kyle turned to look at Charmcaster who was merely gazing at the whole set up, eager to stay there for as long as possible if time hadn't been so binding.

"We're here kids." Max announced as he reached the entrance of the cave.

"To the fountain!" Gwen announced as she tread forward into the cave.

"We'll have to skip that part I'm afraid." Max said as he held her back.

"Why? It's the reason we came right?"

"We're too late Gwen. It's pretty dark already. Guess we'll have to come back next year."

"Well, it's just a cave so I guess that's fine." She replied, slowly regaining her mood. "Back to the RV!" she announced again as she retraced her steps.

"What's with her?" Kyle asked Ben.

"Who knows, probably had her share of sugar for the day."

"Yeah right." He replied as they followed her back to the RV.

x--x--x--x

Within an hour of their departure, the parking lot was now in sight. Max brought out dinner as Kyle, Ben and Gwen gathered the firewood.

Meanwhile Hope cleared up a patch and laid stones for the fire. Everything went around as usual, from the lighting of the fire to the smoked dinner. Max had apparently kept a BBQ stove hidden for the day. His cooking definitely made up for the lost excitement of the day. Pretty soon the day had wound up a bit later than the others, and both Kyle and Hope had made their way up the ladder while the other three called it a night.

"Two already huh?" Hope mouthed as she heard Kyle wriggle in his makeshift bed.

"Yeah, it's pretty humid out here."

"Kinda feels like being choked if you ask me." She replied in her usual bland tone.

"Sure seems like it."

"So, what's your story?" the mage asked again, raising the question that had once been buried weeks ago.

"It's a long story." he answered hesitantly.

"Well, we aren't gonna sleep any time soon."

"I don't usually bring it up."

"I've told you my secrets Kyle, it's high time you pay up." She said, walking over to his shade. She slowly sat down on the roof, stretching her feet to the shades, mere inches from his head. Sighing, he too sat up, folding his legs in front of him and sitting on his makeshift bed. Hope too slid in, taking up her seat right next to him, his blanket at her feet.

"I don't remember much before the fire but I'll tell you all I do. It was fifteen years ago, I'm guessing you remember too."

"Yeah I do." She replied.

"It wasn't you that caused the fire."

"What?"

"There was another person. Wrath."

"What kind of a name is that?"

"It's a code name."

"So he can control fire, like you?"

"Not like me. His flames are normal, not the, dark kind."

"Yeah, so he just lit up the place?"

"No. It was a hit, the town was just a distraction."

"A hit? Wait you mean he torched the whole place to hell as a distraction?"

" It was a contract. On my family. Dad or mom, I don't know that. All he wanted to do was kill them, the rest of us were just for fun."

"For fun?"

"Yeah. When he let those flames lose, somehow, they didn't even sear me. It felt like the flames were staying away from me for some reason. It's just messed up. The sick bastard tied us to chairs and made us watch each other burn to death. I- I couldn't even…"

"You can stop now." She said, knowing that she'd pushed him too far. All she wanted to know was why he kept hiding his past from everyone, even the Tennysons. And now she knew.

"What's with this PNAF then?"

"Those guys took me up after the incident. The police tried sending me to a couple of foster parents but every time I got angry the whole place would just go up in flames. Dark flames. A few years later some suits showed up in the orphanage and took me away to some facility. Most people don't know if it even exists. Some sort of military division where they kept people with paranormal abilities for military operations. More specifically, contracts."

"The Para Normal Action Force, isn't it?" Hope said as she stared blankly into the moonlight, her voice uneven but level. Kyle was surely taking his time, the words had a hard time making its way out of his mouth. As much as he tried to forget these memories, they were in turn what made him into what he was. A cold blooded murderer driven by revenge.

"They took on jobs that required a specific ' _skill_ ' set. The targets ranged from individual threats to whole terrorist bases. What's more is that only one person would be assigned to one job, whatever the target is. These guys were the real deal."

"But you had a choice didn't you? You could've said no if you wanted to." She cut through his words, making him laugh a bit.

"And what, go on vaporizing every person on this goddamn planet. To be caged like some kind of freak show? I didn't have a fucking choice! I've never had one." He nearly screamed, making the girl cringe.

"Besides, something caught my eye."

"Like what?"

"There was this roster in that place with the names of every member. Code name that is."

"So?"

"One of them looked familiar. Wrath."

"What the fuck?"

"God kinda brought me at the right place at the right time. Guess he owed me for all the bullshit he put me through." He said, his dangerous grin holding on to his face. "I asked around and learned that he was out on an undercover OP for the last year, and wouldn't be coming back soon. But the fact that he was coming back was more than enough for me. So I stayed. I trained. I honed my skill to a level that I believed was impossible. But most importantly, my _skill_ was pretty much a secret to myself. I was just an ordinary assassin there, one who would use his powers until absolutely necessary. The kind that even my teammates were afraid of. Secret to all except Kate."

"Who was Kate?" she asked him, a twinge of emotion nagging at her back although she was uncertain what to make of it.

"She was pretty much the only person who actually gave a shit about me. Kinda like a big sister I guess."

"So, you'll be going back?" she asked him finally, putting all the facts together. "To your time I mean."

"No, there's nothing to go back to."

"What?"

"Someone took out the whole unit. They're all dead."

"I didn't know that. I'm sorry."

"It could be him, for all I know. I've lost all the leads I had upto this point, I don't even know where the HQ is."

"How can you not know that?" she asked surprised.

"The place is off the maps Blondie. Classified. The only way we made it out for jobs was blindfolded. Even we couldn't find the place if we wanted to."

"What if PNAF doesn't exist here, in this timeline?"

"Oh it's there alright. How do you think my debit cards work then?"

"Oh."

"Is that all you want?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"So what's up next?"

"Sleep?" she asked in doubtful air.

"It's four thirty."

"Shit!"

The two teenagers spent a few moments in relative silence until one of them finally popped the question.

"You thinkin what I'm thinkin?" Kyle asked, taking a sidelong glance at the dark forest.

"The cave?" The mage hinted with sly smile.

"Spot on my lady." He said, jumping straight down from the shades in a single smooth motion. "Spot on."


End file.
